Small Deeds Go a Long Way
by Notgoodatnames
Summary: A young medic who is gravely injured is given a small bit of help from a Sangheili. Months later the soldier meets her again still as enemies. Will he help or kill her?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Halo. All Oc's are mine. If there are any similarities they are purely coincidental.

 _Private Oliver Mason: Medic of the UNSC_

When Oliver had gone to the UNSC recruitment centre they thought he was too young to join but when the papers checked out they proved he was just barely old enough to be allowed to sign up. It wasn't as if they were going to refuse any extra men considering the dire state of the war.

He didn't have much physical strength other than running and his natural marksman's skill were well below average to put it nicely. They were either going to put him as a scout or a frontline medic. After doing well in standard medical training that everyone did he became a medic. 'He'd make too much noise to be a scout anyway' is what he thought.

Although having little to no natural ability in the military he quickly learned and improved. He was quite brave aswell and wasn't scared of the enemy which was probably the reason he had joined despite his age.

Oliver's family were upset with him for making the decision to join the UNSC as he had just finished school and was soon going to university. His mother especially was afraid he was going to get hurt. His younger brother and sister were crying because they did not know when they would see their older sibling again but they were still proud of him going to fight the 'big scary aliens'. In fact, through all of their worries they had a bit of pride for Oliver, his Dad showing it the most. He had been an ODST(orbital drop shock trooper)fighting insurrectionists before the covenant had came along although he still worried about Oliver.

The training had been rushed and only lasted for two months as the UNSC wanted as many frontline personnel as they could get to help the situation in Reach before they lost the planet. After the two months Oliver had greatly improved his marksman ability but he was still belove average in the marines by a decent margin. He was well above average as a frontline medic though and had been assigned to the first group of new recuits from that academy to leave for Reach.

The platoon he was assigned to consisted of 36 men. It was commanded by a polish man named Jacob Podolski, a second lieutenant who was a fair man who cared and respected his marines but he would make your life hell if you disrespected him or any other marine. Second in command was Ryan Miller, a young sergeant who achieved his rank through his combat prowess mainly rather than his leadership skills.

After he had sent home his final letter from the academy to his family he gathered his gear and boarded a UNSC frigate. The nerves and the butterflies in his stomach were building as he and his platoon set out for Reach but he tried to keep a clear head. 'This is it', he thought 'I'm going to Reach to protect humanity'.

 ** _Reach:_** **Aboard the UNSC Challenger**

When the frigate exited slipspace they could see hundreds of covenant ships either in Reach's atmosphere providing ground support or in orbit attacking the few UNSC craft. The marines knew Reach was bad but the charred surface caused by numerous firefights and explosions aswell as the overwhelming number of enemy vessels sent a sense of fear and dread through the troopers.

The lieutenant went over to Oliver and asked him "How are you feeling?" "A bit nervous, sir" replied Oliver.

"I think we all our marine, but I have faith in you. Good luck". Then he walked to the front of the group of marines and proceeded to give a briefing of the mission.

"Our mission is to reinforce and fortify Aplin base, a vital communications base to the UNSC. There are little defences at the base and it is expected the covenant will send a force large enough to destroy the defences there but they won't expect us to be lending a hand in defending the base. Any questions? No? Good. Leaving in 15 minutes in pelicans 3 and 4 in the hanger so gear up. Good luck marines".

After Oliver had grabbed his assault rifle and med bag he headed to the hanger area. There were only a few other marines there because he was early so he decided to sit down and fiddle with his rifle.

Five minutes later the last marine showed up and they were ready to head down to Reach. Warthogs were attached to the back of the peilcans. The platoon boarded the pelicans and set off to Aplin base.

 ** _On Reach:_**

The trip had been quiet in terms of anti-air attacks and the pilots didn't see any covenant forces on the ground so that calmed some nerves. Once they had landed they exited the pelicans and assessed the defences already set up.

At the front of the base there were two machine gun turrets on top of the wall that surrounded the base. In the back corner there was a small automated anti-air turret. Four secruity guards were patrolling the perimeter with eight more inside. It wasn't much but the marines would work with it and besides they expect a force only large enough to take out the current defence systems so they should be fine.

Some marines were given orders such as to take over the shifts of the patrolling secruity guards or set up cover with sandbags and barricades. Most were just told to go to the barracks and put their gear away then do what they want.

Oliver was one of the lucky ones told to go to the barracks. After storing his gear away he decided to just hang around and get to know some of the troopers. Most of his platoon were friendly and there were some he already knew from the academy but he made some new friends aswell.

After a long night of socialising they were told it was time to go to their barracks and get some sleep. Oliver did just this and quickly found sleep.

 ** _Aplin base: Approximately 4am_**

Oliver's sleep was cut short by load sirens and shouting COs. He was slightly dazed but could make out what they were saying, "We are under attack! Get your gear on now marines! Move it!".

His mind was a bit disorientated still and fear was starting to build up inside him when he heard 'We are under attack' but his body did what he was instructed to do.

He was ready quickly and less dazed than before. He pushed his fears to the side and jogged out to the front entrance.

The sight he saw made it very difficult to just push aside the fear. An army of covenant large enough to destroy a base three times as fortified as Aplin was less than a minute away...

This is my first story so please tell me what you think. I really do appreciate any feedback or critism as it encourages me to write and get better.

Anyways thank you so much for reading and the next chapter should be out in less than a week hopefully.


	2. Chapter 2

The rest of the marines had arrived at the front entrance and had a similar reaction to Oliver although most were more fearful and some were starting to panic. Their gaze turned towards the lieutenant and sergeant who started barking out orders.

"Man the machine guns!" yelled lieutenant Podolski. "I want ten men on the walls, six in the warthogs and the rest take up positions along the barricades!"

The covenant were approaching rapidly. Jacob started a countdown to when they'll hit their position.

"30 seconds!"

"25"

"20"

"15, okay FIRE!"

Bullets were sent flying towards the enemy like a shower of golden death. It was soon equaled by a stream of green and purple plasma, with the blue plasma of the energy swords rapidly approaching the marine's positions.

The slaughter quickly started. The energy swords shredded through their defences. They were losing men faster than Oliver could count. One elite charged at their defences and was gunned down but not before impaling a marine on his energy sword. Oliver rushed over to help the fallen man but was hit on his shoulder pad by a stray shot. The pad absorbed the worst of the damage though the heat was burning away at his skin.

The lieutenant, knowing they were going to lose gave the order to retreat. The remaining 16 marines and 3 security guards gladly obeyed however Oliver was determined to carry the injured marine with him.

Oliver raced over to him and slung him over his shoulder. He could only lightly jog with the extra weight over his shoulders so soon the advancing covenant caught up to him and as he was at the back of the group of marines they targeted him first.

Bolts of colourful energy whizzed over his head as he tried to duck and dodge. Unfortunately one of the deadly plasma balls struck him on the back of his leg. He collapsed, dropping the unconscious marine as he fell.

The plasma burned Oliver's skin and it felt like someone had smacked him with a glowing hot iron rod. He grimaced in pain but he focused himself as he still had a slim chance of getting out of there.

He pushed through the pain coming from his leg and managed to stand, putting most of his weight on his uninjured leg. Plasma shots were still being sent his way so he leaped to cover behind a pile of sandbags.

The damage done to his leg meant he was most likely not going to be able to escape without the covenant catching up to him. He had to make a choice. Take the near impossible odds and try to retreat or stay and fight to buy his platoon more time to escape. In the end the choice seemed obvious to Oliver, he would stay and fight.

He took his assault rifle that was slung over his shoulder and readied himself. He peeped over the sandbags and saw five tall figures, each donning dull dark blue armour, all with energy swords in hand. Elites.

He threw his med bag as a distraction and he then quickly stood from his hiding place which surprised the elites and with shaky aim he started firing at the nearest one. He managed to deplete it's shields and got a few lucky shots to hit the side of it's head, dropping it but not before he had spent the current clip he had in his assault rifle.

The menacing looking figures were charging at him, angry over the death of one of their brothers. Having no time to reload his rifle Oliver dropped it and took out his magnum. He aimed for the next closest elite. He could see the pure hatred in it's eyes, a terrifying look when the owner of those eyes is charging at you.

He squeezed the trigger rapidly, the target at near point blank range preparing to lunge at him. He depleted the elites shield and managed to hit it once in the stomach before the clip was emptied but it wasn't enough to stop the advancing elite, just making it more angry which Oliver thought wasn't even possible.

The elite, realising Oliver had no way out smiled menacingly, gloating silently. He readied his sword for the strike that Oliver believed was going to be the one to end his life. That strike never came, but a different one did.

Two pointed blue plasma prongs from an energy sword were protruding high up the left side of his chest above his heart but still doing plenty of damage. The sword was so close to his face he was sweating.

He turned his head slightly to see the wielder of the sword. It was an elite with the rank of ultra with white armor and a bronze-rose as a secondary colour. There were red patterns on both sides of the head and chest armour which were symmetrical.

Oliver's strenght was fading and he couldn't keep his head up any longer so he let it hang limply, staring at the ground. After a couple seconds the energy sword deactivated and Oliver collapsed into the ground, laying on his back.

He kept slipping in and out of consciousness but a loud explosion awoke his brain fully for just a couple of seconds. He tilted his head up to look at what cause the explosion. The base was now just ruins, the top half completely blown off with smoke rising out of it and he could see huge towers of flames jutting out of the remains of the building.

The covenant had set off a bomb to completely destroy any communication equipment. Oliver coughed up some blood and after that his breathing got steadily worse.

'This is not good, my lung has been hit and I'm going to drown in my own blood soon if I don't find some biofoam' he thought.

He looked over to where he had thrown his mad bag. He was thinking he could probably crawl over to it though it would be hard but he would first have to wait for the covenant to leave and time was not on his side.

Roughly three minutes later dropships came to collect the enemy troopers and presumably chase down Oliver's retreating platoon.

'This is my chance' he thought.

He swivelled around slowly to lie on his stomach. He concetrated on just putting his hands forward to drag himself over the coarse terrain, pushing forward with his legs aswell.

He was using so much of his energy and concentration he almost didn't notice the soft thud being made as feet hit the ground. He paused and looked to his left to try and find the source of the noise. It was getting brighter out so he could more clearly see the figure. It was tall and wore bright white armour and was making it's way towards Oliver. His heart sank when he realised it was the same elite ultra who has caused him the injury and it must have been left behind to check that everyone was dead.

The med bag was almost in reach but that didn't matter anymore. He noticed the elite had not taken out it's sword but it wasn't in a rush. It stopped right in front of Oliver, inbetween him and the med bag. It made no move to take out it's sword, instead just staring at Oliver. Then it simply turned around and picked up the bag. It opened the bag to inspect the contents then turned to Oliver and knelt down, handing him the bag while saying 'I think you need this' in a tone slightly higher pitches and more gentle than the other elites he had heard whilst he had been defending Aplin base.

'Yes. T-thank you' he groaned, still unsure of the sudden change of nature of his enemy.

It then pulled out a UNSC radio and handed it to him. It turned to leave but stopped when Oliver called out "Wait. Why are you helping me?"

"I still do not know entirely why yet, human. I just want the death and fighting to end between our species and maybe this is how to start the end of the fighting."

Oliver nodded and questioned "What is your name?"

"Shi'ae. And yours human?"

"Oliver. Thanks for the help Shi'ae."

"You are welcome hu-Oliver. Goodbye now".

Oliver smiled and said goodbye back.

Shi'ae turned around and started walking away. She liked his smile, it made her feel like she had made the right decision in helping him. She walked to the pick up zone, content with herself.

 **We meet the sangheili that saved Oliver! Yay! On another note I'm going away soon so there may not be an update for a short while but when I get back I will keep to a weekly schedule.**

 **Reviews:**

 **MemoriesOfReach: I'm glad that you like it : )**

 **Guest: Thank you for the review I really appreciate it and I've tried to take what you've said onboard and make it more descriptive. I hope this chapter is more enjoyable!**


	3. Chapter 3

Oliver watched the sangheili leave towards a wooded area before preceding to use the biofoam on his punctured lung. 'The elite, Shi'ae seemed genuine and even gave me a radio so I guess she was just trying to help and she seemed nice aswell' he pondered, still a bit sure of his own change of heart. After all, it was the same elite that had given him the injury in the first place and they were still enemies.

He decided to put the confusing thought aside for now considering he would most likely not see her again. That slightly saddened him as he could almost see them being friends.

He had to get back to the task on hand as even though he had temporally fixed his lung he was still losing a lot a blood and would need an evac soon.

He looked at the radio device still in his hand and hoisted it up onto his chest. After some fiddling with the buttons he managed to get a signal.

"This is the UNSC Challenger, who is speaking?", a stern voice asked.

"This is Private Oliver Mason, requesting an evac at my location." replied Oliver.

After a brief pause the communications officer said "Copy that Mason, pelican en route, eta 7 minutes".

Oliver let out a sigh of relief. He had gotten so lucky with the way events unfolded he was having trouble believing it but he wasn't arguing. For the next seven minutes he tried to slow the bleeding with various equipment from his bag and had moderate success.

Before the pelican had even touched the ground a young energetic marine hopped out. The marine observed the scene before him. "Holy shit.. What happened?", he asked rhetorically. He then turned his attention towards Oliver and asked with kindness "You alright there?", while at the same time going over to him to assist him to the pelican.

"I got stabbed but I managed to stabilize myself so I'm doing alright at the moment altough still very painful." Oliver responded.

"Yeah, you're lucky, those swords are lethal".

"Guess I am really lucky" he said back, thinking of the odds of meeting the one friendly elite in the whole damn covenant. He cuckled to himself quietly at the thought.

He planted himself in the nearest seat once he was inside the pelican, not wanting to walk any more and his tired muscles could not agree with him more.

The green beast prepared for take off and once it had began it's journey back to the UNSC Challenger Oliver decided it would be a good time to get some shut eye after the tiring events of the day so far.

 **Aboard UNSC Challenger**

Oliver woke up to a brightly lit room filled with beds with injured soldiers on them, and doctors and nurses tending to some of them or wandering around making sure everybody is alright.

A doctor noticed Oliver was awake and he made his way over to him. He picked up a clipboard at the end of the bed and then proceeded to tell Oliver details about his injury.

"Mr.Mason, your lung is beginning to heal but it will take time and you may feel a bit weak from blood loss. Fortunately, you will make a full recovery. You are a very lucky man, Mr.Mason."

"Yeah, thanks doc."

"Anyways command wants to speak with you about what happened at Aplin base despite my advice as you are the only surviving member of your platoon."

The docter hurried away to tend to another patient but Oliver was confused at this statement as he had seen his platoon retreating but was soon saddened when he realised the covenant must have caught up with them.

He closed his eyes and wished for sleep but couldn't find it. He couldn't get his mind off his platoon, wondering why he out of all the people there had survived. He just stared at the ceiling for a couple of minutes, although it felt like hours to him until he heard footsteps approaching his bed.

The man, a navy officer spoke first while Oliver was shifting himself up so he could look at the man.

"I apologize for disturbing you but as the doctor has probably told you I'm here to get a report on what happened at Aplin base." He said in a monotone voice.

Oliver explained to him what happened, the size of the force that had attacked but left out the help he had received from Shi'ae. They probably wouldn't believe him and he did not want to be brought for more questioning to be reminded of his platoon.

The officer, satisfied with the report got ready to leave before saying "Thank you Oliver. We need as many men as we can get so I expect you to be combat ready in two to three weeks."

This angered Oliver. 'I'll be lucky if I'm able to walk in two weeks, nevermind going back on the frontlines!' he screamed in his head, knowing he couldn't actually say something like that to an officer. The anger was radiating off of his face but the officer didn't notice as he had already left.

He let out a sigh, releasing some of the pent up anger. If he was going to be deployed he might aswell be in good condition instead of being barely fit for service. He closed his eyes and though it was hard, he eventually found sleep.

 **Sorry that this is the the shortest chapter so far but I wanted to put something up for this week before I go away. Anyways thanks for the support so far on this story, it's really good to see people are enjoying it. Also someone commented on the story thinking there will be smut but just to let you know there will not be any.**

 **UT Midnight Sky:** It's great that you find it interesting and thank you for reading. I promise to not stop until the story is done!

 **Vampiric Shadow:** Thank you for saying it's a great story for my first. I'm not sure entirely how the story will go so far I just have a rough idea and things get changed quite a bit but I wasn't really planning on doing it like Romeo and Juliet so it will probably be something different.


	4. Chapter 4

**17 Days** **l** **ater aboard the UNSC Challenger**

 _Private Oliver Mason_ : _Medic of the UNSC_

Oliver peered inside his khaki coloured bag that had a red cross on the front with white surrounding the cross, making sure he had all of his medical equipment and supplies he would need for the mission ahead.

The mission in question was explained to Oliver and the rest of his new platoon a couple hours after Oliver had been introduced to the platoon. In an hour they were to head to a makeshift hospital which was currently under assault, and help the wounded escape. After, they would make a full retreat aswell.

The area around the hospital was dense with trees and shrubbery, not allowing the covenant to easily pass through in large quantities which was why the base hadn't been destroyed already. The severely wounded had already been evacuated, with only the walking wouded and small number of marines left behind to draw fire.

This had all been explained to the marines who were all in the process of getting ready. Oliver checked inside his bag one last time and then made sure all of his armor platings were positioned correctly. Some of the other marines in his platoon were literally shaking in their boots from the nerves. Oliver, being the only besides his commanding officers to have combat experience knew sort of what to expect but it didn't help whatsoever, if anything making them worse.

He slung his med bag over his shoulder and turned to exit the small sleeping quarters that had only one bunk bed when he noticed Isaac, the marine he was sharing the room with looking quite pale and was visibly trembling.

Isaac was a friendly type of guy and despite Oliver not wanting to socialize after what happened to his old platoon, him and Isaac had grown to be good friends. Not wanting to see his friend have a panic attack he asked him "Are you alright?", even though he knew well he wasn't.

Isaac looked up at Oliver with fear in his eyes. Ignoring Oliver's question he opened his mouth, moving it slightly with no noise coming out but after a couple seconds he spoke, "How.. how bad is it? Is it really as bad as what they have told us? Or w-worse?".

Looking at the state of his friend he decided it best to lie and then pray it wouldn't be as bad as his last mission. "It won't be that bad, our orders are to pretty much hold for ten minutes and then retreat. I promise nothing will happen", Oliver told him.

Slightly reassured, Isaac nodded his head. Giving a weak smile he said "Ok", in a tone just above a whisper. The shaking was less noticeable, only those with a keen eye being able to see his shivers.

With new found energy Isaac hopped off the bed. He started gathering his things before saying to Oliver "I just got to get my things, I'll meet you down at the hanger bay."

Oliver nodded his head in agreement, turning to leave to the hanger bay himself. He walked slowly as he was in no rush. His journey was halted briefly when he noticed a large viewing window. Outside the window was a dismal sight. Large covenant ships were inside Reach's atmosphere, further destroying the battletorn surface.

He had already seen the hundreds of covenant ships before, but couldn't help get saddened at realising first hand that they were losing Reach, losing the war. He shook his head trying clear his mind and think positive.

After a fairly inactive and boring walk he had made it to the large hanger bay which held three pelicans. At the back of the hanger there were seats and a couple of crates with some of his platoon seated on them. Beside that was a moderate sized weapons rack holding battle rifles, assault rifles, magnums, a few shotguns and sniper rifles and even a large portable heavy machine gun that looked too heavy for most men to be able to lift up.

After selecting his weapon of choice, a battle rifle, he began to walk to the area where his platoon were settled when he heard footstep heading towards his direction.

He turned around to see a red faced Isaac who had presumably ran all the way to the hanger bay. He wiped the sweat out of his eyes and off of his forehead. He took a few seconds to catch his breath, which also made face less red revealing more of his natural tanned colured skin.

"Hi", he said casually as if he wasn't tired at all.

Oliver simply responded "Hi" before they both shared a small laugh. The rest of the platoon hadn't noticed them as they were too busy laughing and chatting amongst themselves aswell.

They took a seat and continued chatting between themselves as more and more of the platoon slowly trickled down to the hanger. Once the last man had hastily made it to the area the rest of the platoon were seated, a green light overhead turned on and a bell noise was made.

At the same time their commander had strolled around the corner. He stood there for a moment, just staring at the marines. All of a sudden he started shouting at the soldiers. "Well? Are you just gonna stand there marines! Move it! To the pelicans, now!".

Not wanting to get on the bad side of the fierce sergeant, the marines quickly stood to attention. They stood in formation before quickly splitting into two groups and filing into the two pelicans that were to take them to ground. Oliver and Isaac had naturally ended up in the same pelican as they had been seated next to each other. The sergeant, luckily was on the other pelican.

The pilot did some last minute checkups. He checked with the other pelican that they were ready for take off. After confirming that they were ready to go to ground, the engines roared to life. The other pelican took off first but was quickly followed by the one Oliver was on.

 ** _Reach's Atmosphere_**

There was very little noise during the flight, the silence only being broken by an occasional cough or by someone checking their weapon.

The silence was abruptly broken by one of the pilots yelling "Oh shit! The other bird has been hit!". The other pilot quickly followed with "Were going to have to land now before whatever hit that pelican hits us!"

The marines had overheard almost all of the conversation. Frantic button pressing could be heard from the cockpit. Their efforts were in vain as seconds later a loud bang could be heard coming from the right side of the pelican. Three marines who were not buckled in flew out of their seat onto the ground.

The pilots were struggling to regain control but to no avail. One of the pilots leaned his head over to shout back at the marines.

"Buckle up and brace for impact! It's gonna be a rough landing!"

The marines who were not already properly secured did not need to be told twice. Oliver looked over at Isaac and he could see his knuckles going white from clenching onto the seat so hard. His eyes were clenched shut and he was murmuring something to himself that Oliver couldn't make out.

Oliver's mind was racing. He was thinking of his family, friends and life as a whole. "Why do I have to die like this?" he wondered helplessly to himself. He knew he should try and calm himself, so he took a deep breath, relaxing a little. "I'm not going to die", he told himself confidently, his voice not wavering at all.

He put his hand on Isaac's wrist which caught his attention. "It's okay. Were gonna live", he stated as if it was fact, he voice having such reassurance that it partially rubbed off on Isaac.

His grip slighty loosened on the seat and his eyes were no longer clenched shut. He still hadn't sorted himself out enough to be able to properly speak, so he just nodded his head. He still had his own mental war he was fighting but Oliver's words had comforted him.

The pilot at the front screamed "Landing!", and mere seconds later the pelican smacked off the ground hard before being weightless again. A second later the bird crashed into the foot of a small cliff, sending an ear deafening boom through the passengers followed by the screeching of crushing metal. Flames arupted out of the engines of the wings and under the cockpit.

Oliver sat there, out cold after hitting his head on the metal interior, beside a barely consious Isaac.

 **Real Plasma** **: Thanks for the warning, I'm going to try my hardest to make it gradual and for it to make sense. It really does mean a lot that you like my story as you are one of my favourite authors, so thank you.**

 **Kivdon: You right, especially with the fight scene. I've tried slowing it down and took more time for the characters. Thanks again for helping me out with my story.**

 **Merecor: Thanks!**


	5. Chapter 5

The back of Oliver's head hurt like hell and was wet. He reached up to touch it to find cloth wrapped around his head covering the wound. The bandage was wet were he had hit his head.

He brought his hand back down in front of his face. It was dark, only the dim, red emergency lights illuminating the wrecked pelican. Even so, he was almost certain he saw blood on his hands.

He heard someone say something. He listened closely to try and figure out what was being said. He turned his head to roughly the source of the sound. He saw Isaac standing there.

Isaac spoke louder the second time he said "Oliver?". He was worried the hit had caused serious brain damage or at least concussion so he rushed over to him to stop him from getting up to quickly.

Oliver looked at Isaac and in a confused tone asked "What's going on?". Isaac gave him a quick recap to jog his memory aswell as giving him some new information. "So now were trying to find a way to contact any UNSC ships or make our way to the hospital to continue the mission _or_ find the other crashed pelican and continue the mission from there. All our radios are destroyed so I guess plan one is out of the question. We also had to deal with whatever took our bird out or at least get far enough away before we can get an evac."

Oliver rubbed his eyes and then looking back at Isaac he simply said "Alright", in a somewhat tired voice.

"When are we leaving?"

"In a few minutes, we just need to take the supplies of the pelican and patch up some other people who got minor injuries.", Isaac replied. He was also somewhat tired and unsure of their options.

Oliver didn't noticed his friend's uneasiness and just nodded his head. Isaac helped Oliver up on his feet before quickly going over to help someone unload a box of supplies aswell as getting his sniper rifle from the storage above the seats. Oliver looked around the pelican and saw nine people inside the pelican including him and Isaac, aswell as six outside who appeared to be on watch, occasionally one would move position to get a different view angle.

His eyes scanned around the pelican, looking for his battle rifle. He eventually found the gun under the seat he had been originally sitting on. After getting on one knee to pick up the rifle he quickly bounced back up but regretted straight away as it caused his headache to get much worse.

"You okay?", asked Isaac. He was no doctor but knew head injuries could be a lot worse than they initially seemed.

"Yeah, just a bit sore. Might have to just take it easy for a bit, but I'll be alright."

Isaac juat nodded his head but was still concerned about the injury. "Alright. Were leaving now though, so do you have everything you need?".

"Hmmhmm, all set".

As soon as their conversation ended they briskly walked out of the pelican. Once Oliver was out in the open, he examined the terrain before him in more detail. He gazed upon the vast ocean of trees surrounding their position aswell as the plumage of smoke rising high into the sky a couple of kilometres away. There wasn't any shrubbery in the forest and the only other thing to accompany the trees were fallen leaves and twigs, and with the relative darkness for the time of day as the trees prevented most of the sunlight from touching the forest floor, the forest had an very eerie look.

Someting else caught Oliver's attention as he was panning around the small area. A load of dead marines lined up on the ground. Oliver quickly looked away but it was tough to try and forget a sight that grim.

He overheard a conversation between two marines about whether they should try and find the other crashed pelican or go straight to the hospital. It was decided that the group would go directly to the hospital and hopefully they would meet the other half of their platoon there.

"So it's settled then, were continuing the mission first, but do you know where the hospital is even at?", the first marine asked.

Oliver wasn't looking towards the two but he heard what sounded like someone rummaging through a backpack before pulling something out. After a couple of seconds he let out a sigh before stating to the other marine, "Apparently, the hospital is located in the area where that giant smoke cloud is".

"Well that's not good."

"Figure that out yourself genius", the second marine sharply replied.

"Alright Davies, just sayin' ", the first marine replied in a slightly annoyed tone.

The second marine, Davies however wasn't listening and was already making his way to the rough centre of the group of marines. He cleared his throat rather loudly to grab everyone's attention. Once he had achieved his goal he spoke clearly to the soldiers of their plans and the reasoning behind why they were going straight to the hospital. No one was officially 'leader' of the group but the plan was accepted as the most logical course of action.

After all ready having wasted enough time they set off quickly through the forest. They started off in a light jog but they had to soon slow down to a fast walk as it was too difficult for the marines carrying heavy weapons or extra ammo and supplies. Isaac was slightly struggling with the big heavy sniper rifle that he had slung over his shoulder so he appreciated the slow down in pace.

Oliver and Isaac were somewhat in the middle of the group but off to the side a little, walking beside eachother.

Isaac decided it would be a good time to strike up a conversation.

"So, what do you think that big smoke cloud was from? It could be the other pelican but it seems too far away to be."

Oliver slowed his pace thinking things over for a bit. Isaac was wondering if he had heard him and was going to ask again but he did speak.

"I overheard these two marines discussing our course of action when one of them asked where the hospital even was. The other pulled something out his bag and told him it was where that big smoke cloud was coming from."

"What's the point of going to rescue a graveyard?", Isaac responded, annoyed and slightly angry towards the one who had made the plan.

"It's our mission and theres still a chance that people might still be there so we have to try."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Sorry, i'm just still a bit on edge."

"It's alright, I think we all are a bit. Besides, if there is no one there then there won't be any covies either.", Oliver reassured. They walked in silence for the next few moments.

Time trickled by, and after a while of walking the group started to smell smoke, although faintly at first. Another few minutes and the entire group could clearly smell the strong odour.

The marine leading the group all of a sudden halted and signalled to the other marines to do the same. He turned his head back towards them and then in a hushed toned said, "I can see the hospital. Don't know where the smoke is coming from though. Keep your eyes peeled for any lingering covies and stay low."

The soldiers nodded silently and continued their journey more cautiously and alert. Oliver could see up ahead and he estimated for them to be roughly a hundred metres away from the perimeter of the makeshift hospital.

Seeing it in person he noted that it did in fact have a few small concrete buildings but was mostly comprised of dark green tents whose front face were completely open. They could only see half of the site as clustered tents and buildings blocked their view from the other portion which was also the portion where the smoke was coming from. Burn marks from presumably plasma weapons were dotted around the area they could see. Oliver did not see any covenant troops immediately but he still kept a firm grip on his rifle.

Isaac was crouched down behind Oliver a few paces back and looking through his scope he confirmed that there were no covenant in sight or people for that matter to the marine leading the group.

They contiuned their trek down to the hospital until they were right up against one of the concrete buildings. They halted for a moment and were about to continue to a different location to get a better vantage point when they heard the sound of footsteps up ahead.

The marines automatically stopped and remained dead still. The lead marine mouthed 'Take them by surprise'. The marines were just about to do just that when they heard a very human sounding voice coming from the direction they heard the footsteps.

"Hey, Commander? Do you think the other lot should be here by now?".

His answer did not come from the commander but by the marines stepping out from behing the building in view of the second group of marines.

"Glad to have you here men. Didn't see any covies?", the commander asked.

 **Real Plasma: Thank you so much again for such a nice comment.** **Heres the next chapter!**


	6. Chapter 6

They all replied in unsion "No sir". Their commander just nodded before giving the marines a signal to follow him. The group the commander had came with was considerably smaller than Oliver's group with only six men in total.

The commander, deciding to explain the objective told them "Were going to find out where that smoke is coming, as that's where any activity probably is. Nothing else men, just keep your eyes peeled."

The men switched back into a combat ready mode, tredding carefully to avoid possible detection if anyone was there. The marines had split up into three groups to save time but were still only a building away from each other.

Their journey was short with a couple twist and turns around the place. The three groups emerged out of the narrow corridors into a large open area with the forest continuing at the end of the space. It was mostly devoid of any objects and was most likely the spot where the pelicans would have landed if they had not been shot down.

The only other notable thing, the thing they had been searching for, was the source of the smoke. It was a stomach churning sight, and a good few marines certainly felt like emptying the contents of their stomach.

In a large pile at the centre of the landing zone was a large pile of burning bodies and ash. The flames were dying and most of the bodies were just ash but around the edges were chared bones and skeletons, some with bits of flesh still clinging on.

Nearly every man had almost immediately looked away in digust but some were frozen like deer in the headlights, unable to move in shock.

A very panicky marine spoke up through the almost dead silence. "I-I ain't staying around when they come back!".

And with that he dropped the rifle he was holding in pure panick and bolted off in the direction they had come. The commander was about to angrily shout at him but was interrupted by an almost silent crystal whizzing past him and straight into the back of the panicky marine's head, popping it like a party popper.

Evey single man was horrified by the scene before them, but soon realised gawking wasn't going to solve any problems and they tried to run behind some barricades and sandbags a little bit to the left of their current position.

Unfortunately, another marine was picked off by another incredibly accurate shot to the stomach. He lay on the ground in a pool of his own blood, slowly dying. He screamed and shouted incomprehensible words that sounding like he was pleading with someone. He was left by the enemy and his own team and soon the shouts went silent.

Out of the shadows emerged a large covenant force moving in on their position in a semi circle. The enemy troops were comprised of sixteen sangheili aswell as four skirmishers, the skirmisher opting to stick to the shadows of the forest.

Simultaneously the elites opened fire with plasma weapons on the marines. The marines, in shock, were pinned down. The commander ordered them to fire back. Not actually sticking their heads up from behind cover, they raised whatever weapon they had over their heads and started firing blindly.

They didn't hit many elites and the ones they did were stopped from doing any damage because of the shields the elites always had, but it did make them reconsider charging head on. They took cover behind some cargo crates but were not as cautious as the marines in terms of looking at the battlefield.

The covenant fire momentarily slowed, giving the marines a chance to see what they were dealing with. Two eager looking elite minors had not followed suit with the rest of their comrades and were still charging in the wide open area towards the shaken marines.

Guns automatically opened fire like a chorus of death that shred through the oncoming enemy. The other elites saw this and used the distraction to their advantage. They sent another barrage of plasma towards the men, killing one and clipping another in the neck, the plasma searing at his skin. The soldiers was out of the battle for now but was still saveable.

Oliver stopped firing his rifle and slung it over his shoulder and immediately after rushed over to the fallen man. The man was screaming in agony and Oliver could smell the burning flesh. His training kicked in and he instinctively got to work treating the wound. Luckily, the shot had just grazed the side of his neck, and while in the process of treating the injury, Oliver stole a quick glance towards the battlefield. He noticed an elite ultra that looked similar to the one that had helped him. It appeared to be a bit behind the crates, not really interested in the battle.

Oliver didn't think much of it and let the thought go to his subconscious, and was quickly back to helping the soldier, who hadn't noticed Oliver loss of attention towards helping him.

Oliver had done all he could do for him on the field, and left him propped up against a barricade. He returned to his original position, pressed up against some sandbags. He glanced at the battlefield and saw that the elites were still behind the crates but had regained their composure. The skirmishers didn't allow anyone to easily survey the battlefield but being on a relatively flat plain as a sniper behind your own teammates makes it that much harder.

The two sides were locked in a standstill, neither were going to give up ground easily and although if the elites just charge directly at the marines they would most likely pull off a victory, but not at the cost of a good few sangheili.

The firing from the covenant side suddenly stopped. Oliver poked his head up a little over the sandbag and saw two glowing blue plasma grenades being hurled towards their position. Before he could say anything, before anyone could say anything, the two grenades landing and immediately stuck to the grounds. A loud pop and a crackling sound was made, followed by the screams of multiple men.

Oliver let out a held breath, thankful he hadn't been hit severely by either of the two grenades. He heard the sound of elites charging their position. He looked around the area and noticed there were bodies and pools of blood in the two spots where the grenades had went off.

He looked again towards the battlefield. The elites were rapidly closing in on their position, but he didn't do anything. He just stared at them, not feeling anything but the wind on his face.

"Soldier! Soldier? Can you hear me? Fall back!"

He felt a hand on his shoulder and then he was running through the tents and buildings alongside Isaac. The sounds of plasma weapons and gunfire were getting further and further away but they still weren't in the clear yet.

Oliver was focusing too much on his breathing and running that he almost ran into Isaac who had suddenly stopped at a corner. He looked towards what had caused his friend to stop and saw an elite utlra just standing there a couple of metres away.

Isaac reached for his magnum as he had left his sniper rifle. The elite didn't reach for the plasma rifle at it's side, it simply did nothing. Isaac was aiming his magnum at the elite with shaky hands.

After a moment the elite piped up and said one word.

"Go."

The elite turned and started walking away from the two frozen marines.

"Come on. Let's go!", Oliver eventually said to Isaac.

Isaac nodded and they were back into a run. The sounds of war were dying down as they got closer and closer to the forest. After another minute or so of running they emerged out of the thicket of tents and continued running through the forest.

They came to a stop beside a fallen tree and sat down on it beside each other, huffing and panting after the run.

"Why did... why did the elite let us go without a fight?", Isaac asked, being extremely confused and surprised at the actions of the elite.

Oliver, partially lying responded saying "I don't know", unsure himself why the elite continued to help him. He didn't trust her that much as it seemed very odd for an elite to just not want to fight and to even go as far as helping.

Isaac sighed and took a deep breath of air, then taking a long drink, gulping it down extremely quickly. He suddenly spat out the water in surprise and started coughing a little before pointing ahead and happily exclaiming, "Look! There's the remainder of our platoon!".

'At least were not alone out here in the woods', Oliver thought.

"Come on, lets catch up to them!".

 **I Supah I: Really means a lot to mean that I actually inspire someone to keep writing. Wow, that's amazing. I really like your story as well** **, keep up the great work on your story.**

 **Real Plasma:** **Thank you so much for reviewing every chapter and saying such nice things. It's great motivation**

 **Kivdon: Thanks again.**

 **Gigglemeyumyums: I'm glad you like my story!**


	7. Chapter 7

With new found energy they sprinted through the groves of trees and luscious green bushes to the remainder of their platoon.

When Oliver's and Isaac's footsteps were within earshot of their platoon, said platoon's members quickly turned around, guns at the ready, searching for a target. This made Oliver and Isaac halt abprutly, but the other marines hastily lowered their weapons when they realised it was one of their own running towards them.

One of the marines located at the back of the group, a tall, muscled man with slicked back hair, asked, "See anyone else on your way here?".

Oliver quickly told him that he hadn't seen anything since they retreated. The group accepted their answer and continued walking with an extra two members accompanying them.

After at minute of walking Isaac asked, "Where are we going?"

The marine walking at the front of the group responded, "Were going to try and get out of range of that AA gun and request an evac. Were in no shape to fight back."

Isaac and Oliver both gave silent nods and they continued walking. The walk was uneventful and the group remained silent, the only noises coming from birds and rustling leaves in the wind.

A lone marine slowed his walk to a crawl while staring intently at some sort of radar. His eyes scanned over the screen multiple times before suddenly bulging in realisation.

He shouted out clearly, "Hey! I'm picking up movement, possibly covenant. There closing in on us fast."

Another marine called out, "Quick, find some cover!".

Each man scurried about trying to get into prime ambush positions behind whatever they could find, mainly thick tree trunks.

Isaac had his backed pressed up against a tree trunk while Oliver lay on his stomach, hiding behind some low lying shrubbery that was growing beside a tree, the tip of his rifle barrel barely poking out of the bush.

If it wasn't deathly silent whilst they were walking, if definetly was now. Even the birds had stopped chirping and singing songs of nature. The wind had died down and at this point the only thing Oliver could hear was the sound of his thumping heartbeat and shaky, shallow breathing. It seemed to get louder and louder in his ears as the silence went on until a new sound entered his ears.

The sound of an engine, multiple engines, rapidly approaching, seemed to drown out the other noises.

Through the trees he caught glimpses of a fast moving green vehicle, doing it's best to manoeuvre around the trees. He let out a loud sigh when he realised it was a patrol of mongeese, and then he let his head drop onto the cold forest floor. He wasn't physically and mentally able for another firefight.

As the other men also realised their chaser was in fact allies, they slowly started emerging from their places of hiding. Oliver did too, although he was one of the last ones to do so.

The men stood around in one large group, some with bits of twig and leaves stuck to them, patiently waiting for patrol to make their way to them.

A couple seconds later three camo green mongeese skidded to a stop, right in front of the worn marines.

One of the marines driving one of the mongeese, a young but battle experienced man, asked, "Are you the platoon sent out to that hospital back there?."

A wave of mumbled 'Yes's and 'mhmm', was the answer to his question.

Continuing on he explained how they found them. "Before your pelicans went down one of them sent out a distress signal so a bunch of patrol teams were sent out. We are to bring back to base and if anyone else is still out there we'll bring them back."

This received a similar response to the last question, a bunch of mumbles before the slicked back hair marine took the initiative and walked forward, standing beside the mongoose as if to say let's get on with it then.

The driver understood and started making his way back to the base, although at a much slower speed so the marines on foot could keep up. The other mongoose drivers followed suit and soon there was a convoy steadily making there way to a place that would change their lives.

 **2** **hrs** **11mins Later**

The path that they took had gradually become more and more like a travelled road, with beaten down clumpy bits of grass and no major obstacles blocking the way. The forest had also gotten less and less dense aswell as less of it.

The group had after a long, tiring walk come to a bend where the treeline seemed to end. As they reached a point where no trees were blocking their view, a beautiful sight fell before their eyes.

A valley with rocky, high mountains on either side, sheltering a luscious green stretch of nature. A brilliant, glistening river with water so clear you could see right to the bottom of the even the deepest points, like looking into a window which gave you access to a whole other world of wildlife, ran through the middle of the valley, going as far as the eye could see.

Most of the marines were completely awestruck at the sight, especially the ones who had lived on mostly barren, rocky planets.

The marines on the mongeese eventually got the group moving again, continuing on slightly higher spirits.

Only a few minutes later the group had reached their destination.

Oliver felt a bit more confident seeing the size and armament of the base they had been trekking so long to get to. Large walls surrounded the entire structure with marines patrolling on top of them. There seemed to be dozens of warthogs and mongeese, even a few scorpions. Countless men could be seen even from outside the base. He was in relative safety once more.

The group walked through the gate without fuss and the mongoose driver pointed them towards a worn concrete building and told them that was were they needed to go.

The remainder of the platoon silently obeyed and entered the building through a large, rusty metal door.

The group of eight were slightly crammed as a large wooden desk occupied most of the space of the room. Behind said desk was a stern looking man with light grey hair. He seemed to be studying something but looked up when every man had entered the room.

"Your the platoon sent out to the hospital", he stated like he already new.

He got some mumbles in confirmation and a 'yeah' from the soldier with slicked back hair.

"Very good. We're going to need every man for the upcoming assault on Fort Draux. It is a key position to holding the line and was recently lost. The assault is in two days and will be explained in more detail by someone else. The barracks are to the left of this building as you walk out. Dismissed."

In less than a minute they were in and out of the concrete structure.

Once they were outside Isaac turned to Oliver and expressed his disbelief.

"Another battle? In only two days? It's not fair on us".

"Yeah, nothing we can do though. This time atleast we have a much bigger force on our side.", was Oliver's response.

Isaac sighed and said "Yeah, let's just get some rest."

Oliver nodded and followed his friend to the barracks. He tried to hide it but he felt just as defeated as Isaac, and his body language showed it.

He took slow, sluggish steps towards the barracks. When he was inside he went to the nearest unoccupied bed and slung his bag underneath it, then falling onto the bed he tried to catch some well needed sleep.

 **Sorry this took longer than usual but I was busy for a few days and I'm also back to school, and honestly I was kinda lazy. Good news I have the next few chapter well planned out and ready to write and I will try and make up for it by having a chapter out sooner than usual.**

 **Real Plasma: Wasn't really sure exactly what to do there so thanks for helping me out there. I've gone back and changed it now. Thanks again for reviewing and helping me.**

 **VeteranGamer89:** **Thank you, and here's the next chapter.**

 **Oserix: Glad you like it!**

 **Mongeese or Mongooses?**


	8. Chapter 8

Oliver woke up as the rays of sunshine broke through the clouds early in the morning. He was sore and stiff all over but really appreciated the great night's sleep he had gotten which had done wonders for his head.

He slowly sat up and swivelled his body around so his legs were hanging off the bed. Placing two hands firmly on the bed, he lifted himself up, leaving two indents on the mattress.

He felt sticky and sweaty from the day before's events so he decided to have a refreshing shower and get some fresh clothes.

Some twenty minutes later he was making his way to the mess hall. He walked through the adjacent double doors with a slight limp in his step, still sore but the shower had atleast made him feel slightly better.

The mess hall wasn't as packed as he had expected, but checking the clock that was held above the area where food was being served, he realised it was much later in the morning than he had originally thought, which meant most people had already eaten and where out doing their duties.

The line for food was very short, only two other people so Oliver was served his tray of food after not waiting too long in line.

He turned around and looking for somewhere to sit he noticed something, or rather someone he hadn't noticed when he arrived.

Sitting on his own, close to the corner was Isaac. Oliver knew where he was going to sit and went over towards Isaac.

Isaac seemed to be in deep thought and it took him a second to realise Oliver was there.

"You alright?", Oliver asked.

"Yeah, I've just been thinking about that elite that let us go. Do you think we should tell command?".

Oliver let out a sigh and told him, "I've met that elite before. Back at Aplin she helped me. Still don't think she can be trusted though, but I'm not sure if it would be worth anything to command anyway."

"Why doesn't she attack us?", Isaac questioned.

"Told me she just wants the war to end and I guess not fighting is a step closer to stopping it, or at least that's what she hopes."

"It's really confusing", Isaac huffed.

Oliver sighed and said, "Yeah, it is."

 **The Next Day**

Oliver was sitting in the front of a transport warthog, closer to the back of the long line of vehicles. They were at the top of one side of the valley and Draux base was further down river, going through the valley being the only way to bring the warthogs and tanks.

The last few vehicles were being lined up, and once they were set the journey would begin.

Oliver could feel the nerves in his stomach, feeling like he was going to empty the contents of his stomach and probably would have if he hadn't had so little to eat that morning.

If he didn't have the feeling of dread in his stomach he would've thought it was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, the river as crisp and clean as ever, but all he could think about was the upcomimg attack. It was reassuring to fight alongside such a huge force but last time he had thought it would be an easy victory everyone had died.

He was so deep in his thoughts he hadn't realised they had started moving. A bump caused the warthog to bounce up a small bit, dragging Oliver back into reality.

His mind was a mess of emotions and thoughts, so he did the one thing he knew could easily take his mind off things, fiddling with his gun.

For the entire ride he just sat in the warthog unloading and reloading his gun, checking the sights and the sort.

Oliver stopped his little activity when a message came through the warthog radio saying, "Target up ahead. ETA thirty seconds".

Oliver's grip around his weapon, which was an assault rifle, tightened. He also checked his sidearm, which couldn't do much damage to a shielded elite or brute, but was better than nothing and could always take down a grunt easily if your aim was accurate. Unfortunately, Oliver's was not.

They were going around a very gradual bend which they were getting closer and closer to rounding. These suspicions were confirmed when one of the lead scorpions of three was hit with a volley of plasma, scorching the thick armour but otherwise doing no serious damage.

The covenant must have heard them coming, or most likely a scout spotted them as they were hard to miss.

Most troops were prepared for a sudden attack, and the few who weren't luckily weren't driving.

The tanks quickly went full throttle charging at the enemy, closely followed by the faster gunner and gause hogs, some of them pushing on ahead of the scorpions.

The transport warthogs came last, but still very close to the front charge.

Oliver finally got a good view of the base. It was a massive concrete building with signs of use and wear, black marks streaking down crevices and cracks, large burn marks dotted the building, but overall it still looked sturdy.

There were four plasma turrets on top of the flat roof aswell as multiple ummanned machine gun turrets lining the perimeter behind sandbags.

The grunts manning the turrets weren't the smartest and picked the largest target to shoot at, which also happened to be by far the most resilient; the scorpions, instead of picking off the warthogs which could easily crash or explode with a few well placed shots.

None the less the marines ploughed on, fueled by determination. The tanks lined up their sights, aiming for the turrets up above. With deadly accuracy three shells flew out of the barrel of three tanks and directly struck three of the four plasma turrets, causing small explosions and bits of purple metal to go flying in all different directions.

As one of the scorpions picked off the remaining turret with ease, the low hum of covenant vehicles could be heared, coming from behind the fortified building.

A flash of purple ghosts zipped out, followed by two of the slower, but much more deadly wraiths.

The warthog turrets spun up rapidly and started raining down hell on the enemy, but they were met with an equal return of hot plasma.

The wraiths also released a barrage of large plasma balls down on the marines, this time instead focusing on the warthogs, managing to knock out a few.

They soon switched their aim towards the three scorpions when one of the tanks had scored a direct hit on one of the wraiths, making the large purple vehicle partially immobile, although the turret was still functioning and a threat.

Oliver was watching the battle unfold before him without having to do anything himself, when the troop carriers stopped just outside the defensive perimeter which was made out of sandbags and currently chunks of rubble aswell.

Frantic orders were given out telling everybody to quickly get out and get over to the base.

The marines automatically obieded, scurrying out of their vehicles.

Oliver had just reached the sandbags when a booming voice gave the order to "Hold!". Oliver was wondering why they would halt in such an open area when he saw a large man with a very thick and heavy suit running as fast as he could back to the sandbags, holding some sort of device with wires leading behind him in his hand.

It suddenly clicked for Oliver just in time, and he frantically shot his hands up to cover his ears. Even though his hands were clamped down on his ears, the loud explosions that followed still half deafened him.

Looking around him he saw the others who weren't expecting the blast clutching their ears in pain, although quickly recovering but still presumably somewhat deaf.

He peered up over the sandbags and saw that the thick walls of the fort had been breached. Upon further inspection, he noticed piles of dead covenant bodies who had been lying in wait, ready to gun them down.

The entrance they had forcefully made had actually not been concrete wall but an entrance with a heavy, reinforced steel door.

Oliver noted this as he hurriedly skip over the dead covenant. As usual he was closer to the back of the group, being the medic they needed to keep him alive to treat the wounded. He was still greatly on edge despite the numerous marines in front, as he was still very exposed and if a stray ghost's driver decided to follow the marines he'd be the first target.

Nonetheless he continued on despite his worries. As they carried on down the corridor, marines checking the rooms which were all eerily empty, Oliver could still hear the battle outside raging on.

The marine directly in front of Oliver turmed his head around to quickly scan the space behind them which they had just passed. He was about to turn back around when something made him to a double take.

The marine saw something slightly shimmering. In the dim light it was hard to make out the details of the object, but it seemed to be pressed up against the wall, completely motionless.

The poor marine only realised what he was staring at a second too late, still long enough to feel the terror that arose.

Oliver was about to ask the marine if anything was wrong, when a tall, scaly figure ran through him without even noticing he was there. Oliver was sent to the ground by the much bigger soldier, and when he looked up he saw a lifeless marine impaled on an enegy sword.

The wielder of the sword wasted no time in dropping the man, hungrily searching for the next victim of his blade.

His window of opportunity to take out one more marine narrowed as the soldiers quickly opened fire on the rouge elite. With his shields down, he made a lunged for the nearest marine.

His assult was stopped while he was midair, and the dead elite harmlessly fell just before the intened target's feet.

However the elite was not alone. All of a sudden the walls seemed to shimmer and in the blink of an eye the corridors walls were lined with sangheili, who wanted nothing more than to kill everyone one of the marines. Most did anyways.

Oliver, still on the ground, crawled as fast as he could and then threw himself behind the first bit of cover he saw, which happened to be some old heavy duty matienance work boxes.

He sat with his back against the boxes, breathing rapid, shallow breaths. Plasma sailed above him, but fortunately a majority of his allies had taken refuge behind different sorts of abandoned objects or some behind support columns and doorframes.

The unlucky few who were not quick enough were mercilessly gunned down. The wide corridors allowed the elites to be at certain angles where they could fire at certain marines even if they were behind cover, and the elites took great advantage of this fact.

Though the elites began the fight heavily outnumbered by their opponents, the numbers were becoming more and more in the covenants favour as the UNSC troop's number were dwindling by the second.

A marine behind a support column tried to get Oliver's attention by waving at him. It worked, but Oliver dreaded and was confused by the next words he mouthed.

'Provide me cover fire', and he then pointed at the rocket launcher he held with a death grip in his hands.

Oliver was unsure if using such a powrful weapons in close quarters was a good idea, but considering their current situation, it was probably the only hope they had.

The marine wielding the launcher held up three fingers and started a slow countdown.

'No backing out now', he thought. He sprung up from his crouched position and readied himself, gun held tightly and finger hovering over the trigger.

He looked back one last time, the marine with the laucher's last finger was slowly bending down into his palm and that's when Oliver leaned around the boxes, careful to keep as much of his body concealed as possible, and opened fire on the unsuspecting sangheili.

He kept his fire as a spray back and forth, not doing much damage but certainly causing a distraction. The elites were not nearly being as cautious as they should have been of explosives, being in fairly close proximity to each other.

Just as Oliver's clip ran dry, a bright projectile flew by him, leaving a trail of smoke in it's wake. He saw the rocket slam into an elite before hearing a loud explosion, the shockwaves sending him to the ground.

Once he had recovered from the shock, he looked up to where the attacking force had just been and saw a heap of mangled bodies, but what he also saw were three elites still alive limping down the hallway in a attempt to make it to safety.

With new found spirit, one of the marines shouted "After them!", which received a series of sounds of approval.

Oliver, being the marine closest to the escaping elites, was the first to give chase.

The sangheili sped up their pace once they saw this, but one of them had sneakily gone a different way than the main entrance, which was where the other two had gone.

Oliver spotted this, and was going to make sure it wouldn't get away. Normally Oliver wouldn't fancy his chances one on one with an elite, but the elites shields were clearly broken from the occasional jumps of electricity and crackling, aswell as the elite had seemed to have dropped it's plasma rifle. Oliver didn't know this, but it had broke.

He wasn't that great at much, running being one of the few exceptions. An exit was just up ahead, with light leaping into the dark, concrete building.

He only remembered his assault rifle was out of ammo right as the elite reached the open door, so instead he pulled out his magnum.

The sangheili had heard this action and stopped, turning around quickly.

It was less than a second before he did anything, but it felt like an eternity. It was Shi'ae he had been chasing. So many thoughts went through his head at that moment.

'She let me go, should I?'

'How do I know she's not just trying to get information off me?'

'Her species have killed billions of us!'

'But... she was so nice to me...'

A bullet flew out of the barrel of his gun, and tore into Shi'ae's flesh.

 **Longer chapter than usual, might keep them this long if I have time.**

 **Real Plasma: Yeah last chapter was mainly for setting up this one, hope it wasn't too boring. Glad you thought it was still a good chapter though.**

 **SCBM: It's great to know the chapters are getting better and better each time, as that was one of my main goals when I started this story.**

 **Oserix: Did some research and I think you could be right as it might be one of those things like mice and computer mouses, but either are ok, so idk.**


	9. Chapter 9

The bullet had tore through Shi'ae's abdomen, leaving a gaping wound. She was struggling with trying to stop the bleeding, and she could feel her strenght being sapped away as more blood left her body.

She was running, into the woods that was beyond the exit she had taken out of that concrete hellhole.

Something else was hurt aswell. Not as bad as the bullet wound, but it hurt a bit. She knew their species were at war. She knew that billions had died because of her species, but she couldn't help but feel slightly betrayed, as if her good deeds had not mattered at all.

The more she thought about it, the more she realised that the human, Oliver had more reason to shoot than not. Like what if he had been caught by one of his superiors?

When she had helped marines before she had always thought of the consequences of being seen by a superior. She shuddered at the thought of the such severe punishments that she would have to endure.

Another question that cropped up was why she kept meeting Oliver. The few other marines she had helped, or tried to, had shot at her or had been extremely hesitant, some outright refusing to associate with her. She never saw them again. That still didn't answer her question though. Her pondering was put on hold when she heard the sounds of UNSC forces not too far behind, and realising she was not in the clear yet she quickened her pace.

Oliver was unmoving besides the gun he held shakily, still pointing towards the spot the friendly sangheili had been, or was she even genuinely being friendly?

Either way he had done what he had done, and he couldn't keep standing still as the marines would catch up to him soon. He put the magnum back into it's oringinal spot at his waist and reloaded his assault rifle.

The questions that had flashed through his mind right before he had pulled the trigger returned to him once again.

Those questions aswell as other new ones lingered in his mind and would not go away. His mind was so distracted that he didn't notice that the marines he had been with were not too far away and were rapidly getting closer.

He looked towards their direction and waved at them to signal he was a friendly. The group was now considerably smaller than the original size but was still a sizeable force of fifteen.

Someone from the group, Oliver wasn't paying attention and really couldn't care to see who it was, asked, "Did the elite get away?"

Oliver nodded and told everyone in general, "I managed to get a shot in before it ran away, towards the woods I think."

Before anymore discussion could continue, a sergeant who had been strolling down the long corridor rather than jogging like the rest of the marines, had caught up to the marines he was supposed to be leading.

He didn't even say a single word or make any sort of loud noise but his presence was clearly perceived among the soldiers.

While he placed a cigar in between his lips and lit it, slightly chewing on the end as he was holding in place with his teeth, he had gained every marines attention.

He repositioned the fat cigar at the corner of his mouth and spoke in a strict tone saying, "Mission's not done yet marines. Orders are in, and some covies we didn't know about aswell as some ghost drivers are fleeing into the forest. It's mainly grunts and jackals, but still keep your wits about you, as those snipers have no trouble capping anyone dumb enough to walk into their sights."

He walked through the marines and took a step outside the fortress. Looking back expectantly at the unmoving group of marines, he said, "Let's move!", in a irritated tone.

The marines begrudgingly began to move out of the cold building. Once Oliver had stepped outside, warm rays of sunshine hit him. He basked in the relaxing sunshine, and it seemed to take away all of his worries, if even just for a moment.

It was just a very short moment indeed as the sergeant wasted no time in getting everyone running towards the woods to fulfil their duty.

They had been running for what felt like hours, although it had only been twenty minutes. With no sign of any covenant, the marines began to feel like the search was pointless.

The vehicles had to go the long way around the base and around the sections of forest where the trees were in much denser quantity, but they were catching up to the soldiers extremely quickly and would meet with them once the trees thinned out.

Oliver's lungs were burning and his legs aching, he wanted nothing more than to stop and give up the chase. The others were also feeling like this, and the sergeant, determined as he was, was not stupid and knew that now the warthogs would probably be the only ones fast enought to be able to track down any covenant.

He was not fully prepared to give up though as the grunts even with a large head start, had most likely been passed out them without knowing it.

A compromise between the two ideas was reached, the troops would instead scan the surrounding area in search for any hostiles. They were to immediately report it if they did, but they were not expecting to find anything.

Most went in groups of two or three, but Oliver was just glad to be alone without anyone looking over his shoulder to make sure he was doing his duty.

He found a quiet spot, away from the starting point but not too far in case he actually was caught out unexpectedly by some fleeing covenant.

He sat down at the base of a thick tree trunk, his back pressed up against the rough bark. It certainly wasn't the most comfortable, but at that moment in time, Oliver could almost sleep on anything, so maybe having a piece of bark wood sticking into him wasn't the worst thing for him.

He sat like that for a while, he didn't know for how long, but it was peaceful. He took in the scenery around him, noting just up ahead was a small clearing, with dew soaked grass covering the empty space, along with some odd, colourful wild flowers dotted around.

He was getting ready to leave his quiet sanctuary and return back to the sergeant, telling him he hadn't seen anything, presumably like everyone else, when he saw a thin stream just behind some trees. It was only the tail end of what he assumed was coming from a larger lake higher up somewhere, but he couldn't be sure.

He decided it would be good to freshen himself up, by throwing some cold water on his face. It would wake him up some more aswell, and he certainly didn't want to look like he had just been taking a nap while in the presence of the sergeant.

With no hurry, he calmly made his way over to the thin stream. He took off his helmet and placed it down at his feet. He knelt down on one knee and leaned forward, cupping some water in his hands and throwing the liquid over his face. He shuddered at the sudden cold reaching his red cheeks, appreciating not feeling like an oven.

Everything was going swimmingly, until he heard the sound of heavy feet impacting the ground behind him. He twisted his head towards the direction of the noise and was slow reacting, taken a few seconds to hide himself behind a tree.

What he had seen was a lone sangheili staggering across the small clearing, walking aimlessly and clearly disoriented. From Oliver's view point of view, the elite could be seen clutching it's side in pain before it went out of view. He then heard a soft thud, and peeking slightly around the other side of the trunk he saw the elite on the ground, lying on it's stomach, facing Oliver with it's eyes closed.

That's when it clicked for Oliver. After seeing it's, or rather her face, he realised it was Shi'ae. She had gotten weak from blood loss and exhaustion and passed out.

Oliver felt more unsure than he had done before around Shi'ae, wondering whether he would be treated as a hostile or not.

He though the first option would be most likely, so he drew his assault rifle and held it forward, in the rough direction of Shi'ae. He slowly started moving forward in a crouched position, careful not to make a sound.

He could tell Shi'ae was beginning to stir, and it wouldn't be long till she was fully awake. At this point Oliver was right beside Shi'ae. He took a deep breath, hoping to clear his mind in an effort to help him make a huge decision for the second time in just one day.

Will he help or kill her?

 **Anyone wondering, I pronounce Shi'ae as 'Shy ay', but it's a name I made up so you can pronoune it how you want.**

 **Guests:**

 **Nophlast: Thanks for the advice, cause I haven't given Shi'ae a second name yet. I will refer back to this review went chosing one though** **. Never originally intended for there to be different povs, but I like the idea and decided to start the chapter off in Shi'ae's perspective solely. If people like the idea I might occasionally do some more differant povs.**

 **Goodnight** **everyone!**


	10. Chapter 10

Oliver's knuckles were going white from gripping the rifle so tightly. At first he didn't notice he was even doing it. He loosened his grip around the weapon, giving his sweaty palms some much needed cool air.

He didn't know what to do. Never before in his life had he been so unsure about something, multiple conflicting arguments going through his mind all at once.

When he took a step back from the war and their differing species in his mind, he asked himself, 'Are we really that different from each other?'. That was the question.

During this time Shi'ae had regained consciousness, but was still dazed. Oliver noticed this just as Shi'ae turned to face him. They made eye contact, gaining a reaction that was unexpected from Oliver.

Shi'ae's eyes widened and she felt extreme uncertainty, but mixed in with that was fear. She had no idea what he was going to do, so she just closed her eyes tightly and hoped for the best.

Oliver looked down at the elite, the fearless, ruthless enemy, who had also saved him, was lying in front of him at his mercy. He could tell she was fearful for her life while he had made eye contact. He was almost starting to feel sympathetic towards the helpless elite.

He reasoned leaving her there would be the best idea. He would not have to kill anyone or help the enemy, so that immediately felt like the the best outcome. When he looked back at the sangheili's gaping wound, he realized leaving her there was a death sentence as much as shooting her would be.

That left him with two options, not allowing him to just sit on the fence.

He spent a lot of time thinking about it, searching for the answer. After a good while thinking it through, he made up his mind on what he was going to do.

When a shot had not been fired within the first few seconds of closing her eyes, Shi'ae opened one eye, almost unnoticeable, and was somewhat relieved to see that Oliver was at least thinking about his decision.

Oliver let out a deep breath that he had held for a few seconds and called out, "Shi'ae?".

Shi'ae slowly opened her eyes, unsure of what to expect. She saw Oliver looking down at her, a stressed and over exhausted look plastered on his face. She responded simply, "Yes".

He began, "Shi'ae, you've helped me before, and I think it would only be right to return the favour."

It took a second to set in fully, but when it did Shi'ae was extremely relieved and also happy, although not showing it straight away. Oliver was not finished however, and continued saying, "I'm a medic and can treat your wound, and if you trust me enough", he paused, letting out a grunt as he slung his med bag off his shoulder, "I will."

Shi'ae quickly nodded her head in conformation to Oliver that it was okay to treat the wound. Shi'ae didn't see any reason to doubt him, and she thought he seemed genuine. Even if she did, her situation could not become much worse.

Oliver was hesitant as first, he did not think Shi'ae would try and attack him while his guard was down, but he still had to be careful. A bigger issue that he had only realised just then was that he was clueless about treating elites. He assumed it would be similar to a human, but that was just an assumption.

He grabbed what he thought he would need from the bag, and began work on cleaning the wound. Luckily, the bullet had gone all the way through, as shown by the circular exit wound he saw when he got Shi'ae to lie on her side.

He managed to stop any further bleeding almost completely. He didn't want to rush, but he began to realize the amount of time he had spent out in the forest, when he looked up for a second to wipe the sweat off of his forehead with his sleeve, and saw it had goten noticeably darker.

He turned up his speed a notch and continued on. He did all he could for her in his situation and with the equipment he possessed, finishing off by giving Shi'ae some medication that would give her some strenght, aswell as painkillers, allowing for her to escape easier.

He tried to take his leave as soon as possible, but was halted when a hand was placed on his shoulder, prompting him to turn around to face the owner. Shi'ae was looking at him with a grateful look, what Oliver thought was a small smile on her. Still weak, she softly spoke, "Thank you, Oliver."

He couldn't helped but smile back, a warm feeling inside of him knowing he had saved someone and they were appreciative of it, even if he was the one to shoot her in the first place.

Still smiling, he said, "Your welcome."

He reached into his bag one last time after he had gathered up all his medical equipment, and fished out an MRE, and handed it to Shi'ae.

"They don't taste nice at all, but it will help you get your strength back up."

Shi'ae accepted it gratefully, only realising at the sight of food how hungry she really was.

"Are you um... going to be alright?", Oliver asked, somewhat concered considering they were within new UNSC territory, which would likely have many troops moving through.

"I think I should be able to walk, and I saw a place that would be good for hiding not too far ahead. And Oliver, before you go I you to know I really appreciate it, and I won't forget it.", she said truthfully.

Oliver gave a smile at the praise. He nodded in appreciation and helped her up, before turning around once more and he began the short journey back. Shi'ae did the same and made her way to a small, rundown building she had seen her earlier, hoping it would be enough to keep her safe.

Oliver surprisingly enough was not the last one to arrive back, as four others had not yet arrived back. The others who had not came back yet were the ones who were angry over the death of their comrades, and wanted to let out some steam. Even they decided they would head back soon, so they would not have to wait to long but Oliver didn't know that.

Oliver sat in silence on a fallen log, not because he didn't want to talk but because he was too distracted thinking about what he had just done. He was fairly confident no one had saw him, but there was still a chance. If anyone did and they reported it, he would be interrogated, maybe even by ONI. They probably wouldn't have evidence, so he might be able to hold his cool and lie, but from what he heard, that would be very hard to do if ONI was interrogating him.

He thought he had done the right thing, but sometimes doing the right can cause a lot of trouble. He wished he could have someone to talk to about it completely risk free, maybe seek a bit of comfort, but he didn't know anyone. He could maybe talk to Isaac, but it would be quite risky, and he wasn't sure there was much his friend could even do.

He was so caught up in his thoughts he didn't notice that all the marines had made their way back, and the group was beginning to leave. He didn't hesitate in moving once the sergeant called him though.

They walked back the rest of the way to the newly captured base, which Oliver was thankful of as he was sure he would collapse if he had to run like he did on the way out. Something he was even more thankful, was the trio of transport warthogs waiting to take them back to base.

The other marines must've felt the same, as a few 'Phew's and couple of small cheers were heard, the weary soldiers ecstatic that it was confirmed they would be going back to base.

The marines quickly climbed aboard the vehicles, and in no time they were off, making their way through the valley which they had come from.

 **Bit shorter but I felt like it was a good place to end. Let me know what you think of the interactions between Shi'ae and Oliver because I want to do them right so I really would appreciate any criticism/feedback on that. Small change also, I will only be displaying guest responses at the end of a chapter, and PMing all people who have accounts. I just thought they took up too much space, that's all.**


	11. Chapter 11

The desolate building Shi'ae had spotted while making her way through the forest was not too far from where she was now. In fact, she had already been heading there, which was why she was walking back in the direction of the marines, but she had collapsed before she could make it. Luckily, Oliver had been there to save her.

She continued her way through the woods until she came across the building that would act as her hiding spot for the time being while she was injured.

The building itself was a small log cabin, better described as more of a large shed. The two windows were broken, with small bits of glass hanging from the top like stalactites, and moss covering the window-sill. There was a rotting wooden door with rusted hinges at the front of the shack, which provided some resitance when Shi'ae forced the door open. She figured it hadn't been open in a long time, at least a couple of years, which meant no one would probably be coming back to the property anytime soon.

The medication Oliver had given her was working miracles. She still felt mild discomfort, and some actions were very hard to do, but other than that she felt quite well for having been shot. She cursed herself when she realised the pills would run out eventually, and maybe she should've asked for more, but on the other she didn't want to be greedy and Oliver had already done a lot for her.

'Nevermind, let's see if I can find anywhere somewhat comfortable for sleeping.', she thought.

As she stared around the shack, she noted that that would be far from an easy task. The tiny amount of space the building had was largely taken up by dusty, cobweb covered, wooden crates. The one positive to take from it, solving a problem Shi'ae hadn't thought of, was the few cans of food that were on some of the crates.

There appeared to be no water, but she could source that from the stream whenever she wanted.

It took Shi'ae a while to make room for somewhere to sleep. The crates looked heavy, but they certainly felt a lot heavier than one would think. Although, her strength was not at it's full potential because she was lacking energy and sleep.

She layed down in the small corner, just barely big enough for her to fit, as she had given up trying to make it comfortable after she had dropped one the boxes and was unable to pick it back up again.

She placed her head against the wall, using it as a support, and she slowly closed her eyes and let sleep take her.

Oliver and the other marines had been dismissed once they had arrived back at base, and Oliver immediately went for his bed. He chucked his bag at the foot of the bed and leaped onto the douve after he had gotten changed.

He slid under the covers and closed his weary eyes, his aching feet overjoyed that they didn't have to do anymore standing. He quickly fell asleep on the soft mattress, the day's events unconsiously playing over in his mind.

 _The Next Day_

Oliver woke up stiff and sore from the previous day's events, but his mind was refreshed. A loud rumble that came from his stomach signalled to him just how famished he was.

After making his way down to the cafeteria with Isaac, Oliver received a large bowl of hot soup, which he devoured. Isaac and Oliver simply just chatted for a bit, trying to put their minds at ease and relaxed.

Isaac was a good friend, but he was still unsure whether he could trust him with the information that he had helped the enemy, even if Shi'ae was in Isaac's good books after she had let them go. Better off not saying anything in case anyone overheard anyways.

Oliver put his soup bowl and tray on the stack of dishes that needed to be washed once he had finished.

He was about to leave when a young officer came up to him and told him, "Your being assigned to a new platoon, so you need to head over to the assembly. Right now."

The man briskly walked away before Oliver could give any input. Having nothing else to really do, he thought if would be best if head there straight away. A smile crept across his face when he turned around and saw Isaac walking behind him in the same direction.

He slowed his pace to allow Isaac to catch up to him. Once he did, they began talking again while they were walking.

"Hey, I didn't really see you yesterday during the fight. Where were you?", Isaac inquired.

"Up on the front lines storming the base. Got a bit crazy in there but I manged to get out almost without a scratch."

He responded, "Oh shit really?", in a surprised voice.

"Yeah, where were you?", Oliver asked.

"At the back mostly, reporting anything I see or sometimes taking potshots if I can."

Oliver gave a nod in acknowledgement and the subject was forgotten about as they continued on, talking about various things. Oliver also noted that Isaac was a lot more quiet than usual, like he was holding back something.

As they closer to where they would be assigned, he saw other people making their way there. 'Guess these are going to be my new teammates', thought. They seemed like average marines, marines just like them.

Oliver almost lost it when they told them they would be transported yet again, but calmed down once more details had been given. They were going back to the concrete fortress to help fix it back up and populate it. They were to also act as guards if anything happened.

Oliver would've prefered to stay at the base they were at now, but at least they were less likely to be called upon for a different mission that may involve something much worse than guard duty.

Oliver looked over at Isaac and noticed he had stayed calm, not too bothered at the idea.

Whoever organized it did not leave a lot of time for the marines to get ready, only roughly twenty minutes before they had to board what they assumed would be warthogs.

As soon as the meeting was over everyone quickly disbanded, hurriedly trying to get to their barracks, including Oliver and Isaac.

Once Oliver was at his bed, he wasted no time in gathering his necessary things, which was not much and most of it was already packed away. He didn't have much that wasn't military related to take with him, one of the few exceptions being an old silver necklace with intricate patterns on it. It was a gift from his dad, while having little actual value still held sentimental value to him.

He hauled the heavy bag out of the barracks, and started to slowly waddle over to the front entrance of the base. A few other people had already gathered there, and as the minutes went by more and more gradually came, including Isaac.

Everyone had made it with not a minute to spare, but what they didn't expect was two massive pelicans to come floating down from the sky, having come from the opposite direction of where the gate was facing.

Isaac appeared to have had developed a fear of flying, his face went noticeably paler and his hands were shaking and twitching by his sides. He did board the roaring bird, with a slight delay however.

The occupants of their plane hadn't much to say over the course of the flight, and it remained relatively silent throughout, apart from the occasional chatter over the comms that came from inside the cockpit.

Oliver found himself nervously sweating over the course of the flight, but he quickly regained his posture once the pelican began to descend and they touched safely on solid ground.

Isaac was the first one off, not wanting to spend another second on the craft. Everyone else got off at their own pace, and they were greeted by a jolly young woman who seemed keen on getting them to work as soon as possible. There really wasn't much work to be done, as the builders were doing all the fixing and repairing. Oliver knew this and groaned internally, but hopefully he wouldn't be needed and would be sent to whatever living area he was assigned to. How wrong was he.

They were told to put their bags away and after putting a handful of people on guard duty the lady had to pick a person at random for a different task. She pointed at the first person she saw, which happened to be Oliver and said, "Yes, you! Take this. I need you to go into the forest and place them around in strategic positions. They are sensors, and should be able to detect anything early before it reaches the base. Off you go now."

What the lady had handed Oliver was a leather bag filled with some type of square electronical black box. Oliver still had his smaller med bag on his back, which he had with him most of the time, so carrying an additional one would be quite awkward.

None the less he carried out the task, although he hadn't a clue why he was chosen for the job, having no experience in strategy he would've thought someone who had or someone who was smarter would have been picked. He guessed they were just tight on time.

The sensors had some sort of sticky material on the back that was revealed once a plastic covering had been removed. He wandered around and placed the objects in places he believed would suffice, until he came across the same clearing he was in the other day, the stream still confidently flowing.

Shi'ae woke up quite late in the morning, judging from the position of the star called 'Ran' in the sky. She knew she would be sore, but she didn't expect it to be half as bad as it was. Fortunately, she had never had any serious injuries before, but this left her unprepared for what it would be like to get shot and then sleep on a hard wood floor.

She felt light headed and dizzy, so decided it would be best to get some water from the stream and maybe come back to get some food.

The forest was quiet, tranquil, with loads of different kinds of birds chirping and singing. She knelt down beside the stream and cupped some water in her hands before quickly gulping it all down. After also splashing her face with some water she sat in the shade under a larger than average tree.

It was risky, and if she was spotted she would have a hard time escaping, but she felt free and happy. Going back to that shack would just ruin her mood.

She sat there motionless for a few minutes, content with life. A few moments later she decided to go back.

'All good things have to come to an end', she thought somewhat sadly. She would be certainly visiting the spot tomorrow though.

She began to stand up until she heard something stepping on dry leaves, making a crunching sound. She froze, completely caught off guard without a clue of what to do.

"You're not a very good hider, you know."

It took a second but she realised it was Oliver. Her rigid frame relaxed and she let out a held breath. Obviously she was not hidden, so stepped out in the open to face the speaker.

Oliver look surprised to see her, but he also couldn't hide the faintest of smiles from her.

Shi'ae was caught off guard but still managed to say, "Yes, it seems so. What are you doing out here?"

"I was told to put these sensor things out here. Anyways, how are you?"

Shi'ae smiled lightly and responded, "I'm fine, thank you. You did an excellent job healing me, but... Nevermind actually."

Oliver did feel bad for shooting her, and he could tell she was still in some pain, so was adamant in finding out what was wrong. It clicked for him before he could even asked.

"No, it's alright. Did the medication I gave you run out?".

Shi'ae was guilty to admit it because she didn't want to rely on Oliver or get him into trouble. She really needed the medicine though.

"Um, yes. I hope it's not too much to ask but can I have some more please?"

Oliver gave a small laugh and told her, "Yeah, sure. You can just ask if you need them, you seem like a good person so I don't mind."

He took off his bag and rummaged around in it for the pills. He managed to find the correct ones after about a minute, and he handed them to Shi'ae along with his canteen.

Shi'ae thanked him and chucked the pills into her mouth, then washing them down with a huge gulp of water.

"Oliver, is it okay if I can talk with you for just a short while?"

Oliver never had the thought of just sitting down and talking with the friendly sangheili. It would be

interesting to see how their cultures varied, and he was not needed back at base.

"I would love to have a chat with you."

 **Next chapter might take a bit longer than usual. I've got a busy week ahead and a league title deciding game, but we'll see how things turn out.** **Also the next few are going be more relaxed and casual than usual, but if you want more action let me know.**

 **Fun fact: Ran is another name for Epsilon Eridani, which is a real star that Reach's solar system is based off.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Changed this chapter slightly, nothing too much but it might be a little confusing later down the line.**

"Thank you, it's just I feel like your the first person in a long time that I can talk to.", Shi'ae told Oliver.

"No problem, what do you have on your mind?"

"Well, what is human culture like?"

"Well our culture is different every you go. It's truly amazing, the amount of different type of people you meet everywhere you go. I remember going to Earth before to a place called France, which had incredible food and beautiful scenery, aswell as unique people and places everywhere you go."

"Wow. That sounds great, I would love to visit 'France' someday.", Shi'ae responded, deeply interested in what Oliver was saying.

Oliver internally shuddered at the mention of Shi'ae going to earth, because then the covenant would have that info aswell. Was she trying to squirm knowledge of earth's whereabouts out of him? No, she wouldn't do that. Right? Maybe he should be a bit more careful.

"What is your culture like?", Oliver asked, seeing if she would be willing to trade details, but also because he really wanted to know what it was like.

"Like most of my species, I come from a planet called Sangheilios, which is a much hotter and dryer planet than this one. Something I noted from my past experiences on other human planets, was that your kind is not as focused on fighting and combat training as ours, and it is common for people to do other things in life other than fighting. Is that true?"

Oliver knew they were good fighters, but it sounded like nearly everyone's career was military service. "Yeah, we need things like doctors, police and firemen and farmers. Is everyone from Sangheilios a warrior? Or, well what's it like?"

"Yes, from what I know of every male goes through training and joins the covenant's ranks. Very few females do though, we are seen as simply child bearers by most. I was much more skilled than most of my male peers, and I still barely made it. I don't know of any 'policemen' or 'firemen', and unggoy do all the work in the fields."

"That doesn't sound right, does it? Not really accepting people into the military."

"I agree, but I'm afraid there is not much we can do. It has been this way for as long as I know.", trying to change the tone of the conversation, she said with a light chuckle, "You probably shouldn't be wishing for more soldiers to join the covenant, you know?"

Oliver smiled and told her, "I know, but it just doesn't sit right. And besides, what if you hadn't been allowed to join? I would probably be dead at the moment!"

They shared a laugh, Shi'ae then said, "Don't forget you also saved me, so we would both be dead."

"Yeah... but I was kinda the one who shot you in the first place."

"And I was the one who stabbed you. So we are even I guess, but I would gladly aid you again if you ever needed any assistance with anything."

This made Oliver smile. He was happy to know he had someone to rely on if he ever needed anything that he couldn't really ask his UNSC comrades for. It was nice having someone like Shi'ae in his life in general.

"Thanks, Shi'ae. Anything else you want to know?"

"Mmmm... What is it like where you come from?"

"I come from a planet called Mars. I heard it used to be one massive rocky red desert, but they terraformed it, and now it's more similar to Earth. It's kinda boring being honest with you, but most of the people there are nice. This is my first time on Reach, and all the endless green and blue, and beautiful views amazes me."

"I love it too, all the colourful flowers and glistening streams always manage to make me smile, even just a little."

"Yeah, it's relaxing, sitting here and having a chat, you know?"

"Yes, it is. I am really enjoying our conversation, but Oliver do you have somewhere to be? It seemed you were busy with something and your leaders might question your whereabouts if you take too long."

"Oh yeah, it has been quite a while since I left base. Do you... do you want to meet tomorrow aswell? It might be hard to get off but if you want I'll try."

Shi'ae's face lit up in joy, quickly replying, "I will be here tomorrow in the morning, and would love to continue conversing with you. Be careful, I would hate it if your leaders grew suspicious of you because of me."

"Don't worry, I think I'll be fine. See ya later!", Oliver ensured, walking away backwards, facing Shi'ae.

"Goodbye to you too, Oliver."

Oliver hurriedly went around the forest placing the sensors. He was careful to leave space where he wouldn't set off any of them, in case he was going to meet Shi'ae.

'It was nice getting to know her. She appears to be a lovely person. Shame we're at war with each other, it would be much better to talk with her without the fear of being interrogated, or even worse, court marshalled.', he thought, wondering what things would be like if the war never began.

Another half an hour later, Oliver had finished placing the little dark grey circles. It ended up being just a line, covering most areas. It was far from straight however, more of an inverted, stretched out semi-circle. Anyone who came down the middle would be detected minutes after someone who had gone on the edges.

Satisfied with the job complete, he trekked back to the fortress. He was still going to be overdue on when he would've been expected to be back, but it would only be by less than an hour. Maybe they might even think he was thinking extra hard on where the sensors would go, then again probably not.

He arrived back at the base not fifteen minutes later, walking casually through the open gate, which had been set up on the outside the base alongside a metal chain fence.

The woman who had given Oliver the job was still standing outside, pacing around the place talking to various people, but completely ignoring Oliver.

He trudged through the long hallways until he came to the living area. Rooms were small, with three or four people at most in a single room. Oliver, out of pure luck was in a room with Isaac.

He opened the green painted door and stepped in, wasting no time in taking off his bag and putting it at the foot of the unclaimed bottom bunk. It was only Isaac in the room, presumably anyone else who they would be sharing with was on guard duty, or maybe there wasn't anyone else other than the two current occupants.

Isaac looked up from the tablet he had been holding in his hands, and greeted Oliver, which he returned.

"What took you so long just to set up some sensors?", asked Isaac, curious of Oliver was doing out in the woods.

"I wasn't in a rush or anything, so I just took my time, enjoying a stroll in the woods."

"Ok...", Isaac said, sceptical of Oliver's answer, not truly believing him.

Oliver could clearly sense his friend's scepticism, but decided it would be better to not say anything at all in case he ended up saying something he really didn't want to.

He sighed quietly, and then told Isaac he was going to get something to eat before leaving the suddenly tense room. He had no idea where to get food, but he actually wasn't that hungry and just wanted to wander and get to know the place.

When he had been invading the place he hadn't realised how big the base actually was. Not all the rooms had been fully refurbished yet, most having not had a soul in their walls since the building's prime days. It's was creepy, but yet cool to Oliver, checking out all the rooms, seeing if he could find anything. He was half expecting to find a body however, which put him off slightly.

He eventually stumbled upon the mess hall, which by the looks of it had only been recently opened. Very few people were in the large room, the majority being hungry builders on their break.

He got his food and sat down by himself, picking at it with his fork, actually eating very little of the meal. He had promised Shi'ae he would see her tomorrow if he could, and because he gave his word he felt compelled to go. He also enjoyed her company, but he was not sure if the whole ordeal was getting out of his control. It was one thing to help someone who helped you in the moment, but consciously meeting with the enemy in a friendly way was another.

It was hurting his head thinking about it. Would it be easier to just stop seeing her? She was his friend though, he would feel awful if he stopped talking to her through no fault of her own. He would talk to her tomorrow, see what Shi'ae thinks of it.

 **Bit short, but I was quite busy and my internet broke, which was annoying. Also, for anyone who was wondering, we did up end losing the game that would've won us the league 2-1.**

 **Tell me what you think of the dialogue between Shi'ae and Oliver if you have anything to say.**


	13. Chapter 13

The next day Oliver woke with a bit of a spring in his step. He wasn't really sure why, he was just happy. Maybe it was because he was going to see Shi'ae, but that was debatable.

First, before he went to go meet her he had to come up with a reasonable excuse as to why he was leaving the base. Five minutes later, he came up with one he thought would satisfy anyone's queries.

He would tell them he was going out to the woods to check on the sensors again to make sure they were all still working and positioned correctly. Happy with his excuse, he quickly got changed and headed out the door. Isaac, was nowhere to be seen which was quite odd, but then again it was quite late in the morning for someone in the military, so he was probably out working or getting breakfast.

He got an apple, a bar and a bottle of water to have on the go while he was walking to the spot where Shi'ae said she would be.

Nothing interesting happened on the way there. Oliver was taking his time enjoying his small breakfast and looking at the birds flying high above, or occasionally he would spot a little squirrel scampering up a tree.

He broke through the treeline with a big step over a fallen log, and found himself in a familiar clearing. He didn't spot Shi'ae immediately, but turned when he heard some movement to his left. He saw the friendly alien standing behind the same tree she was at yesterday. Her eyes were slightly squinted in happiness, a warm, joyous smile on her face.

Thinking to herself, she was actually really glad he was able to come visit again. Oliver was happy to see her also, but he needed to discuss about their meetings with her. He didn't really want to, and he was afraid he might even hurt her, yet he had to talk to her about the issue.

"Hi, Shi'ae!", Oliver opened.

"Hello to you too, Oliver. I am glad you were able to make it.", Shi'ae responded.

"Yeah, me too. Thing about it though, I have something to talk to you about."

Shi'ae didn't have an idea what he wanted to talk about, but it sounded like it wouldn't be like the happy and lighthearted conversation that had the other day. With nothing to go on, she responded simply with a,

"Mmhmm."

"I'm not really sure exactly the best way to say this is, but I'll give it a go. I was thinking about what if someone saw us? At the moment no one is really suspicious of my whereabouts, mostly. I want to keep visiting you though Shi'ae, I just... don't know what to do."

It took Shi'ae a number of seconds to respond, Oliver counted the seconds that slowly passed.

She knew it was a problem. Of course she didn't want to get Oliver neck deep in trouble he couldn't handle, and she certainly didn't want to get captured either. The easiest thing to do and what seemed the most obvious to do, would be for them to stop seeing each other. This option was on the two of their minds, neither wanted to say it however. The easiest thing to do wasn't the best thing to do at the time for both of them.

The silence was almost unbearable, that was until Shi'ae broke it.

"This situation has me perplexed aswell, and of course I would hate for you get disciplined, and imaginably worse, because of me. But if I can say, I truly have enjoyed your company even if it may have been brief, and I think our bond is proof our species can live in peace. I know an the current moment in time, it seems unlikely, but I still believe it possible. I would be asking a lot from you undoubtedly, but I think maybe if you can get your people, or even just one person at a time to see it is achievable, then I think it would both help our situation and be one step closer to achieving peace."

It was a lot to take in for Oliver. He understood what he was asked to do, what he had to do, and what he was going to do. He knew the person he would speak to, and he just prayed he would be able to convince them.

"I'll try Shi'ae, I promise. I have a person in mind I think I'll speak to. Thanks for your advice."

Shi'ae was happy that he would try, but she wanted him to be discreet about it. She hopes this 'person' wouldn't say anything even if things went sour between them.

With that hurdle with Shi'ae overcome, he decided it would be best to enjoy his time relaxing now and worry about what he was going to do later.

The two of them talked for sometime about things ranging from the nature surrounding them to more cultural oddities between their cultures.

An hour and a half later they were still talking. The conversation had gotten to point where they were talking about shopping. It was far from a topic Oliver was interested in but he was fascinated in all the differences between their cultures that were, well, just so alien.

"We don't have those large 'supermarkets' you have, we do sometimes have markets and occasionally travelling merchants visit. We don't buy food and necessities from these vendors however. They always have unusual things on them that I don't understand why anyone would buy, but I do like looking at the trinkets and bracelets they sell."

"We have those types of markets in places sometimes aswell. I was never too interested in them most of the time, but I did get a cool necklace before from one of them."

When Oliver finished his sentence, he checked the time and realised it was lunch time. They didn't really check for your attendance at the base but that did not mean he could go completely unaccounted for without any repercussions.

He quickly followed after that statement by saying, "I'm really sorry Shi'ae, but I have to run. I'm already late for lunch."

"That is fine, see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, see you tomorrow as long as things don't south!"

He made it back to the base running all the way. He slowed down just as he reached the outskirts to allow himself to catch his breath. He stepped through the open door and went straight to his room to put his bag away.

He wasn't sure if he wanted to talk to Isaac now or later.

'If he's there, I'll speak to him, if he's not, I'll just do it later.", he reasoned.

As he neared the door he knew the probability was Isaac was already back from lunch, and was in the room. He went over what he would say to him, mentally preparing himself. He took a long breath to call himself. He tried not think of the consequences if the worst happened, but they still lingered in his mind.

He opened the door and slid through before turning around and shutting the it. Isaac was indeed in the room, and was on his bed, looking at his tablet.

Before Isaac could say anything, Oliver burst out with, "Hey Isaac, can I talk to you about something?"

"Yeah I guess so. What do you want to talk about?"

"Do you remember the elite that just let us go a while back?"

"You've been seeing it, haven't you?"

After a second long pause he confirmed Isaac's suspicions.

"Yeah, I have. How'd you know?"

Isaac didn't give too much of a reaction to the news, he looked slightly surprised but he wasn't angry, which was good. Then again, Isaac rarely gets angry at all.

"Bit of guess, but the notion came from when I saw you help it back when we were taking this base over. I didn't report it though."

"Thanks for that. I think it felt right to help Shi'ae because even before we had that run in with her at the field hospital, she helped me a different time. I know I shouldn't have helped her, although talking to her I learned she wants this war to end just as much as we do. She believes the best way to end the conflicts is to make peace with one another, and I'm trying to tell you that they aren't as bad as they seem, or at least most of them are. Shi'ae is actually a really nice person with good intentions. I hope you can believe me on this, and what I ask is that you keep the option of peace open."

Isaac processed the information he gathered from Oliver's speech, and he carefully selected his answer.

"I trust you judgement, and from first-hand experience I know Shi'ae is good hearted. I don't know if all of her species would be as accepting, nor do I think ours would be either. But, I agree that the best outcome with the least loss of life would be a peace treaty, and although at this moment I don't think peace is possible, I would support it if the option ever came", Isaac ended with a supportive smile for his friend.

Oliver was amazed at his words, but deeply grateful of them at the same time. He thanked his friend with a smile on his face.

 **Really sorry for the wait, took a bit of a break. Hopefully this chapter doesn't seem too all over the place cause that was a lot of info in a short time. Anyways, thank you all for your continued support, I'll see yous soon.**


	14. Chapter 14

Oliver went to get lunch after talking to Isaac for a bit, feeling content with himself. Like most times it seemed, he was almost alone in the large cafeteria save for a few wandering souls.

He finished his meal in good time as he didn't want to stay in the cafeteria by himself for long. He put his empty tray in it's appropriate place, and headed out the double doors.

There was still plenty of daylight left, so he decided it would be a good idea to see Shi'ae again and tell her what Isaac thinks. First of all however, he would tell Isaac he was going this time.

He went to his room to do just that. He slipped through the slightly adjacent door, but Isaac managed to detect him anyway.

"Hey, came here just to say I'm going to talk to Shi'ae. Do you want to come?", Oliver told him honestly.

"I'm fine, maybe some other time."

"Alright, see ya later!"

"Bye"

With that, Oliver left the room and the building for that matter, to go meet Shi'ae. There was no one out at the entrance again, which Oliver found much more concerning than if someone was.

It might have not been the smartest thing to forget about it without any thought put into the issue, but that's what he did.

He knew the area fairly well at this point, or at least the path he took to get to the clearing, and because of this he had no problems making it there.

A sudden thought dawned upon. He hadn't specifically said for Shi'ae to stay there as he wasn't sure he would be able to go back. He almost got very angry with himself for forgetting to tell her but was calmed when he saw a familiar sangheili, sitting cross legged on the grass, looking at a small colourful flower, twirling it in her fingers.

She looked up when she heard a disturbance rustling the ferns, and was somewhat embarrassed to be caught with a flower in her hands while staring at it intently by Oliver.

Oliver did laugh a small at the sight. There was something he would always find funny watching a large alien that could easily kill him twirling a flower in her hands.

She quickly put the flower back down on the ground and prentended she was doing anything.

"No, it's fine, sometimes it's nice to turn off your brain and appreciate the little details in life.", Oliver assured her.

Shi'ae opened her mouth to say something in response, but soon closed it and simply smiled and picked the flower back up.

After a minute or so she directed her attention away from the flower and back towards Oliver. Wondering if he had spoken to his friend yet, she asked, "Did you talk to your friend?"

"Yeah, I did."

Judging from his happy expression, she assumed it had went well but asked how it went anyway.

"How did it go?"

"He doesn't think it will be possible anytime soon, but he said if the opportunity for peace ever came around he would support it, and he thinks peace is the best possible outcome to the war.", he answered, summarising Isaac's words.

"That's wonderful! I know for certain peace is achievable, small victories and common goals is what will get us to that point."

"Yeah, I think... it is actually possible. I certainly hope it happens someday, it would be nice for my little brother and sister to grow up in a world not plagued by wars. It would also be nice to be able to talk to you care free aswell."

Shi'ae gave a small yet warm smile at his words. Now, they were both fighting for a cause that strongly believed in. This fight however, would not be fought with guns and swords, but words. An odd concept, especially to her species, however she would stand by her beliefs, and now that she had Oliver on her side she had to more than ever.

"Your words mean a lot to me, and I am very happy that you will help me achieve this goal."

"No problem, I believe in these goals and I will work towards them even if progress seems slow.", Oliver told her.

"Thank you", Shi'ae said in appreciation. She wished to know more about Oliver, aswell as she wanted to talk more lightheartedly, so asked him, "If we do achieve peace, what do you plan on doing with your life?"

The question was unexpected, but he was more than willing to answer it. It was one that certainly made him think. He didn't really have a plan for the future.

"I haven't thought about it much, but I guess try and continue on with my

life from where I left off. Do the standard things, get a job, maybe settle down somewhere nice.", he replied to her question honestly. "Why do you ask?"

"I was just a bit curious. I don't know either what I would be doing, I have no where to really go but hopefully an opportunity comes my way."

Oliver found this interesting and took note of it but didn't say anything much about it.

"I'm sure you'll be able to find something if you try hard enough."

"We've got a long way to go to get to that point, so I probably shouldn't be worrying about it too much, but I couldn't help thinking about it."

"It's alright, we'll probably have to address it at some point, so it's always good to have a plan."

"I guess so... Anyways, do you think you could tell me more about human culture? If that's alright with you of course."

Oliver wasn't really sure what to talk about, as he had already discussed a lot of topics so she would probably want to hear something different. One topic struck him as a good one to talk about that he had not talked about already... pets!

He doubted Shi'ae had any pets so if she had not heard of the concept, she would be certainly confused and most likely entertained by the idea of humans owning little creatures.

He gave a small mental laugh when he remembered the arguments him and Isaac would get into over whether dogs or cats were better. He was on team dogs as he had a dog back home, and Isaac was on team cat, owning a total of three fuzzy felines. He really didn't mind cats that much, but he loved debating it with Isaac.

"Shi'ae, do you know what pets are?

She though a second before responding, "I've heard the word before but I'm not too familiar with it. I think it has something to do with domesticated animals?"

"Close, it is about animals but pets are animals that you own and care for, and usually they live with you also."

Shi'ae was certainly confused by this. Why would you care for an animal that belongs in the wilderness, and give it residence? What does the human get in return? She voiced her confusion by asking, "Why would you let an animal stay with you? I could imagine it would be quite dangerous."

"Haha, thought you would find it confusing. Well they aren't really that dangerous most of the time, in fact they are actually really good at defending against intruders. We do give a lot to them, but they do try and give as much as they back. They tend to be loyal, and very affectionate and great at cheering you up on a bad day. They are just lovely creatures that bring joy and happy memories."

"That is indeed very interesting. Humans have a tendency to do the oddest things, but I actually find these pets fascinating."

"I have one at home, and if we ever get the chance, I think you should meet him. Come to think of it, you might actually like a pet."

Shi'ae got a laugh out of that, and in a surprised voice asked, "What would make me good for caring for animals?"

"No no, I am being serious. You're really gentle and caring. A pet would be lucky to have you as it's owner."

"You really think so?", Shi'ae asked.

"Yeah, you'd do great."

"Thank you, Oliver. I might actually consider getting one of these pets if I ever get the opportunity.",Shi'ae said while smiling at the complement.

"No problem", was Oliver's response, also happy because he was able to convince Shi'ae that she could own a pet.

"Hey, what's the place you're staying at like?"

"Umm... In all honesty the best word I can use to describe it is 'shack'. It isn't great, and certainly uncomfortable, but I do have plenty of food. I spend most of my time in this area now, so it is not a big worry."

"I could probably sneak out a pillow of you wanted, I'm sure there are plenty of spares, and maybe even a blanket if I can find one."

"Surely you would get caught doing that, no? Believe me when I say, I can live with it."

"Yeah, you can live with it, but I could make it better for you, so why wouldn't I?"

She had no answer to his question, so admitted defeat.

"Okay, if you wish you can bring me some comfort items, but please Oliver, be careful."

"Don't worry, there usually isn't anyone on guard duty for some reason, so I shouldn't have a problem.", he said excitedly, happy he will be able to make a difference.

"Thank you once again Oliver."

"No problem, I'll go get them now so I'll be back in a bit!", he exclaimed as he ran off into the woods, back the way he had came.

Yet again there was no one at the entrance. Oliver felt a breath of relieving cooler air as he stepped out of the high midday sun. He wiped a flick of sweat off of his brow and took a drink of water. He then proceeded down the long corridors looking for the place he had seen the stack of pillows alongside some other bits where he might be able to find a blanket.

Luck was leaning in his side as not five minutes later he stumbled across the small, cold room. The room is actually a storage for spare bedings. The room also contained sheets and pillow cases that needed to be washed over to one side.

He took off his bag and set it down on the concrete floor, zipping it open while doing so. He had to be quick, as he would have a hard time explaining why he was stuffing a pillow into his bag.

He grabbed one and stuffed it into his bag, trying to make it as compact as possible. Fortunately, there was a thin blanket there that he would be able to fit into his bag. After forcefully squishing the blanket down enough to be able to close the bag, he hurriedly left the room without a trace.

He decided he would say 'hi' to Isaac later. He went down the corridor that lead to the exit he so often used, and took a step outside the door into the hot sun. It took his eyes a second to adjust, but he was certainly not thrilled by the sight of a guard standing by the entrance of the chain link fence.

He was facing out towards the woods and did not notice Oliver immediately.

'I'll just hurry by him looking like I'm going somewhere, that usually works.'

He walked with pace by the guard but his plan didn't work. The young man guarding the entrance, piped up, saying, "Hey, where are you going?"

Oliver kept his cool and said the most rational reason as to why he would be heading out to the woods.

"Oh, yeah, I'm just going out to get some exercise."

The man nodded, believing what Oliver had said. His curiosity had not been quenched however, as a second later he asked, "What do you have in your bag? Seems a lot for someone to be carting around while doing running or something."

"Oh, well I always have my medical equipment with my, and some food and plenty of water, aswell as a change of clothes."

The guard had no reason to not believe him, they were fairly normal things to bring, it just seemed like a lot more than most soldiers would have with them, but it wasn't a big deal.

The guard waved Oliver on and he spent no time waiting around and got out of there in a hurry.

A few minutes of trekking through the forest later, he had made it back to Shi'ae, who was sitting alone leaned back against a tree, resting peacefully.

She was only lightly sleeping however and heard Oliver as soon as he took a step into the clearing. She looked up and murmured a 'hello' while stretching her arms and yawning.

"I manged to get a pillow and a blanket for you!", Oliver told her, happy with his success.

"That's great! Thank you very much Oliver. I assume you had no trouble then?"

He decided it would be best if he left out the near close call with the guard so he just nodded his head.

"Do you mind showing me where you're staying so I can help you set up a bed?"


	15. Chapter 15

It did not take them long to reach the area Shi'ae had located herself. It was quite secluded, tucked away in it's own little corner, out of sight. When they saw the shack Shi'ae pointed at it and stayed, "That is where I have been staying."

"Yeah, I see what you mean. I'll make up something comfortable for you to lie on. Oh yeah, also I should probably check up on your wound, see how it's healing."

Shi'ae nodded in agreement at this. The injury seemed to be healing up very well, with little pain most of the time, but it should be certainly checked for infection just in case.

She led the way through the hut, pushing open the creaking old door. She stepped inside and closed the door once Oliver had come in. It was quite crowded inside the tiny building with the two of them however.

Oliver plopped his bag atop one of the crates and opened it. The blanket on top was half falling out after the pressure keeping it down had released. He quickly grabbed it and turned around to judge which would be the best position to set up a sleeping area. The only space in the shed was the area he presumed Shi'ae had been sleeping previously.

He gently place the blanket down and smoothed it out, muttering, "There we go", once the task had been complete. Next, he fluffed up the pillow and placed in down on top of the blanket.

Shi'ae had been watching him the entire time, curiously studying the things he was doing. Once he had finished, she looked at the finished product with gratification. It appeared much more comfortable than before.

Oliver glanced over the bedding, noticing the blanket would probably be too short, he told her, "The blanket's a bit too short, so sorry about that..."

"It is fine, truly. I am sure it is not too short, and anyways it is much better than what I had before. Now I will be able to get a good night's rest, thanks to you Oliver."

Oliver smiled at her words, contempt with the fact that his efforts meant something.

"Your welcome. Anyways, do you mind if I take a look at your wound?"

"It think it would be best if you would, thank you.", was Shi'ae's response.

Shi'ae sat up on one of the crates and shifted her chestplate to allow Oliver easy access to the wound.

"Ok... Let's have a looksee...", Oliver mumbled to himself as he went to pull off the bandage. He tore it off quickly, hoping it wouldn't hurt too badly but Shi'ae barely flinched.

The wound had indeed healed extremely fast, for human standards anyway. It had closed over nicely and there were no signs of infection at all. A new bandage was still in order however, and as he reached over to his bag to pull one out, he informed her that, "Yeah, it's healed up really well and there appears to be no complications. I'm just going to put a new wrapping in it to keep it clean, and you should be able to go within a few days if not tomorrow."

He said the final part in a sad tone, and Shi'ae picked up on it. He was not trying to earn any sympathy, but he couldn't help be a little sad that she would be going soon. He had grown to enjoy her company, and would even consider her a friend.

Shi'ae thought carefully for a few moments before saying, "I see... I might take it easy for a bit and stay a few more days, to regain my strength."

Oliver smiled and was inwardly happy, but he kept that mostly to himself. He was quiet for a minute, concentrating on putting the bandage on.

"That would do you some good definitely, but keep it easy enough."

Shi'ae hopped down off the large crate she had been sitting in, simultaneously saying, "Thank you. I think now we should head outside of this pitiful shack and go enjoy the beautiful sunlight while it is still day."

Oliver packed up his things and returned his bag to it's usual spot, on his back, while happily following Shi'ae out the door.

They walked side by side through the woods, both silently listening to the sounds of nature, birds chirping and flying tree to tree, the bright orange sunlight breaking through the treetops, lighting the place up beautifully.

It took the pair a while to reach their usual quiet place, as they had been walking slowly while viewing their

surroundings.

They casually sat down facing each other, Shi'ae sitting cross-legged and Oliver with his back against a tree.

Oliver did a huge stretch while yawning, settling himself down more comfortably against the tree, sliding down it until he was satisfied.

"This is nice...", he said, eyes fluttering shut, threatening to fall asleep.

"It is very peaceful, I could quite easily fall asleep here myself.", Shi'ae said while also repositioning herself more to her liking, relaxing her shoulders and neck. After a good while had passed, she knew she had to snap out of it.

"I'm afraid we can't stay like this forever unfortunately Oliver, as your people would looking for you. However before you go, do you mind if I ask you something?"

The sudden request caused Oliver to snap his eyes open, sitting up quickly so he could address Shi'ae. He always enjoyed listening and answering the sometimes odd questions she asked, so he eagerly told her, "Sure, go ahead."

"After all our time speaking, I have never actually found out what you full name was?"

Oliver looked at her perplexed. He really hadn't which he found weird, and concluded that he should probably great her properly.

'Better late than never', he thought.

"Hello there, I'm Oliver David Madison, nice to meet you!"

"I'm Shi'ae Rahomee, and it's pleasant to meet you also.", she said, taking Oliver's outstretched hand and shaking it.

"Well, Mr. Madison, I don't mean to dampen the mood, but I think it might be time for you to go back."

Oliver let out a sigh, and for once not being eager to do something, he still agreed with her though.

"Yeah you're probably right, but I was getting comfortable."

"You can always come back tomorrow."

He perked up slightly, content with the fact he could just come back the next day.

"I'll see you tomorrow then, and maybe I'll bring some food for you instead of that canned stuff!"

Before Shi'ae could respond, the fool had run off into the woods, excited he could let Shi'ae try some human food, even if he would be hard pressed to find anything half decent. She still considered the fool a friend, an odd yet friendly thing.

Once Oliver had gotten to a position where he was in the treeline but had a good enough view of the base, he began scouting around for a side entrance for future reference, and did eventually ended up finding one. He was fairly confident that he knew the rough position of where the door was from the inside aswell.

He still entered from the main entrance however, as the it would raise the guard's suspicions if he didn't see him coming back.

He was red in the face from running back, so it would look believable that he was out exercising. He walked up confidently, and the guard let him by without a second notion.

After putting his bag back in his room and throwing a splash of water in his face to cool off, he headed to the canteen to receive his meal.

It was moderately filled as for once Oliver had arrived in time. He got his food and sat down beside his friend.

"How you doing?", Oliver greeted Isaac.

"Pretty good, thanks. You were gone for a while, what were you doing?", Isaac said while raising an eyebrow, smile on his face.

He leaned towards Isaac slightly more, not right in his ear, but close enough so he wouldn't have to talk as loudly.

"I was getting Shi'ae a pillow and blanket, cause where she's staying in some shack in the woods don't look all too comfortable.", he told him.

Isaac nodded at this new information, letting it soak in before he crack a wide, cunning grin.

"Slick way to find where a girl lives.", Isaac said trying to keep a straight face, but couldn't help devishly grinning, and soon broke down into laughter.

Oliver couldn't help but laugh, albeit at his own expense. He gave Isaac a playful dig on the arm, saying, "You know that wasn't what I was doing!"

"I know, I know, just messing with you.", Isaac panted, managing to calm down but he was still lacking breath.

A little while later, after they had cleaned their plates, they headed back to their room. It wasn't too late but it wasn't early either. Oliver was worn out from an event filled day, and decided he would go to bed at little earlier than the standard curfew.

He still stayed up a bit to talk to Isaac, although his want for sleep some overtook him, and he went to bed.

He woke up some time later. Someone was shaking him, and making a noise. He soon matched that noise to be his own name, and the person making the noise was Isaac.

"Hey, hey, wake up. There's something important you need to know, now.", Isaac said urgently.

In his groggy state, Oliver was still having trouble piecing together what was going on, but said up anyway to listen.

Isaac took this as the nod to go on, so he started telling him, "They're fire bombing the forest, and if I had to guess Shi'ae couldn't be hiding far from here. Bombs drop in half an hour, so if she is out there you have to warn her."

Seconds after Isaac had finished speaking, Oliver fully realised what he had been told. He sprung up quickly, causing his head to spin, but he still continued getting changed. He threw some better suited outside wear over what he was wearing to bed, and headed out the door without anymore than a nod of acknowledgment towards Isaac. He opted for leaving his med bag, knowing it would only slow him down, and time was essential.

He went out the side entrance he had found earlier to avoid any guard waiting to tell people to go back and ran. The sharp early morning wind cut into his face. It was dark, but it was getting lighter. If he had to guess, he would say it was roughly five.

Going from asleep to running through the woods as fast as he could in less than three minutes was having it's effects in him. His stomach felt like it was churning, and his legs were weak and soft. The wind did help him wake him up somewhat however.

He didn't know why the UNSC were fire bombing the forest, not did he care. He did know that he had to warn Shi'ae, so he did not stop until his lungs were burning, his head hurting, and he was at Shi'ae's temporary place of residence.

Why was he risking his life for someone he had only known a few days? He couldn't give a definite answer, but he could come up with a few ideas. Maybe it was because she was nice to him, or because he felt he owed her his life after she saved him numerous times. He didn't know the reasoning, but he did know he was doing it.

He stood outside the door, panting and regaining his composure. He hastily opened the door, yet still careful to be as quiet as possible as to not surprise her.

As soon as he entered he felt two large hands wrap around his neck and mouth, silencing him and putting him in a state of dread. The hands all of a sudden let go as fast as lightning. The voice of Shi'ae soon followed, "Oh, I am very sorry Oliver, I did not realise it was you. I heard noise outside and prepared myself for anything, but I am glad it is you."

Oliver let out a sigh of relief, and chuckled slightly at the situation. He quickly returned to a serious time remembering what he was here for.

"Okay, Shi'ae you need to leave now. It's not safe, they're fire bombing the forest!"

Shi'ae's expression didn't change too much, but her face noticeably stiffened.

"I understand, thank you for warning me in advance Oliver. Why are they doing this?"

"I don't know, but it's happening in less than twenty minutes, so you can wait any longer!", Oliver replied, clearly in a panic. Shi'ae remained a lot calmer, but internally, she wasn't feeling great.

Seconds passed, with Oliver patiently waiting for any kind of response. Shi'ae almost seemed oblivious to the world, until she looked towards Oliver, calmly and steadily saying, "I guess this is it for now, but I hope to see you again soon, friend.", she finished with a sangheili smile.

Oliver couldn't help but smile and say, "Hope to see you again some time soon too, buddy."

Shi'ae then pulled him into a warm, yet short, one handed hug. It seemed to last longer than it actually was for both of them. Oliver was a bit confused, but he appreciated it.

"Good luck to you, Oliver. Go now before it is too late."

Oliver could only nod and run back to base before it was too late.

 **Sorry I haven't uploaded in a while, and probably won't for another while again. I want to better plan this story, and that will take time.** **Anyways, Merry Christmas!**


	16. Chapter 16

Nearly everyone in the base was standing outside obsvering at the destruction that happened earlier. The once lively woods was now nothing but a charred wasteland, small patches of fire still smoldering.

The beatiful landscape that once was seemed like a distant memeory now. There were no birds chirping, or leaves rustling as little creatures ran over them, or any signs of life.

Oliver could only hope Shi'ae had gotten away, as the destruction did not go on forever and he could see the end of it. He did give her ample time to run, but he still couldn't know if she had gotten away safely.

The people around Oliver were shocked and confused at the sudden carnage. He wasn't as much, as even though it was the first time he had seen the damage, he had a lot of time to get over it and think of why this happened, as he couldn't get back to sleep once he had come back to base.

He had some theories, but none had yet to be confirmed. His first idea was that they were expecting an assault from the covenant, and they wanted to remove any cover for the enemy and also to allow their own vehicles to traverse the landscape. The problem with this, if the covenant were to attack they would attack from the other side which is open to allow them to deploy vehicles and troops from the sky. Now it just gives them two routes of attack.

The second was that maybe the UNSC were on to him and Shi'ae, and wanted to capture them for interrogation. This one also didn't make sense in his mind, as if they wanted to capture them they just would, and not risk killing them by dropping bombs. Unless that's what they wanted to do, which was also unlikely as it would be easier to go to them and kill them instead of firebombing them. They most likely didn't even know about them anyways, as he was fairly discreet and only one other person knew about it.

Unless, they wanted to see if Oliver would go and help Shi'ae if she were in danger, as a way to see how much of a connection he had with her. This was also flawed, as he was told that were bombing the area by Isaac, who wouldn't go behind his back. Maybe, a commander told Isaac assuming he would tell Oliver.

All of this seemed highly speculative, and quite unlikely, so he put his theories to the side.

There was also a chance the UNSC were testing a new type of weapon, maybe more effective napalm or something, although the weapons used didn't seem out of the ordinary. It was, so far, still the most believable reason.

After roughly fifteen minutes, the last person returned back inside the base. Most went to get breakfast, but a few who did not have any duties went back to bed.

Oliver went to get breakfast, while Isaac went back to bed. He was given the same stuff as he always was given. It wasn't great, but it was eatable. It did give him time however to think more on the subject of why tge forest was bombed. After a lot more thinking, and no answer, he decided to give up and let time tell what was going on. It might not have been the smartest idea, but he just could not figure it out.

At a time like this he would have gone out to the woods, to ask Shi'ae for advice on the situation. Unfortunately for Oliver, he didn't have that option at the moment.

He might ask Isaac, see what he thought of it. He let out a sigh and stood up and put his empty tray over near the other ones. He left the still lively canteen, heading back to his room.

Once he entered he noticed Isaac was actually awake, but he was still in bed flicking through his tablet. Isaac gave Oliver a nod of acknowledgment, Oliver responding with a simple, "Hey".

Oliver thought for a second before asking, "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"Why do you think the forest was firebombed?"

"Don't know really, probably needed to just clear space for something, I don't think it's really a big deal. Why'd you ask?", Isaac replied, not too bothered with the whole deal.

Oliver noted this, then said, "Just wondering, seems like quite a drastic thing to do to clear some space."

Isaac shrugged at this, returning with, "Guess these are drastic times then."

Oliver nodded and dropped the subject as it seemed Isaac didn't know anymore than he did, and he wasn't fazed by it, so maybe it really didn't matter.

The rest of the day went by uneventfully, aside from the fact a large amount troops started coming to the base in droves near the end of the day, for what reason Oliver did not know. They also appeared to be carrying crates of maybe supplies or ammo.

He shrugged it off as nothing, and went about his day as he would usually. He did miss talking to Shi'ae

however, and his day went by much slower and less lively than it had the last couple of days.

It was roughly half past eleven when things started to change. The intercom crackled to live, and after a few seconds of fuzzy static, a solemn voice spoke.

"Recent information I have been told has confirmed the presence of a large covenant force approximately thirty minutes away, advancing on our position. We were aware that an assault had a high likelihood of occuring, so we prepared for a defensive but we had not expected it too happen so soon. We still have ample time to position ourselves, so I request every able bodied man and woman to do so. If you have not already received a defensive position, go to the front entrance of the base immediately. Thank you, and God bless", he finished.

A sinking feeling gradually set in Oliver's stomach, the words of the speaker setting in. He had been lucky so far in all his endeavours against the covenant with a little help from a friend, but the size of a covenant force to be able to challenge the fort would have to be considerably large.

However, expresionally he remained motionless and was unmoving. He sat there for a minute, before taking a breath, standing up and getting the rest of his gear on. He was the only one in the room, Isaac having left half an hour ago to go do something and not yet returning.

Oliver was on autopilot getting his med bag ready and putting on his light armor platings, starting with his shinpads and working his way up until he domed his open-faced helmet.

He stepped out into the corridor, feeling no more alive than moments ago. His head was hung low, the hallways seeming twice the length they should be judging by his footstep, or maybe he was walking half as fast.

There were a few other people also seemingly going to the front door, some disgruntled after being woken up, not fully aware of the situation, and some who had been awake like Oliver, some looking nervous, although not all of them were.

Oliver took a detour at some point and wound up in the men's bathroom. He went over to the sink and studied himself in the mirror. His skin was normally fairly tanned having spent his life on the warm rocky planet of Mars, but at that current time he looked sickly pale.

Bending over the sink, he threw a large amount of water into his face, the cold water snapping him to his senses somewhat. He dried his hands on his trousers and wiped his face clear of water while leaving the toilets, heading back on course to where he was originally going.

A small congregation had gathered at the main entrance. A young commanding officer was pacing up and down trying to put people in decent defensive positions, anxious to do so as quick as he could.

Oliver looked out over at the area that had once been a thriving forest. It was very dark out, the only light coming from small patches of still burning flames, and searchlights vigilantly scanning the area for infiltrators. He looked up and noticed some machine gun posts stationed at each one, ready to shred apart anything that moves.

Multiple spotlights were also pointing at the sky, scanning for enemy fighters. The atmosphere was frightening. It reminded Oliver of wars of old, when new weapons were being invented at a constant, rendering a once useful tool invalid. They did not know their enemies or weapons, unlike the old wars. Could they be become an invalid tool, discarded and scrapped?

The officer walked briskly backed down after sorting out another batch of soldiers, clearly exhausted but trying hard to keep his professionalism. He pointed at Oliver and with a mixture of happiness and relief, exclaimed, "Yes, you! You're a medic, yes? Here, come here, we're short of medics so I'm going to need you to cover this area over here", saying this while pointing at a rough area not to far from his position.

"Get to it!", he ordered, soon leaving Oliver to it while going over to another soldier and ordering him somewhere.

Oliver did as he was commanded, heading over to the area. He was encouraged to mostly stay low to try and increase his survivability, thus increasing the other soldier's chances of living if wounded.

Oliver looked out over his cover, a few stacked sandbags, and saw nothing in the darkness of night, if there was actually something matching towards them that is.

The lights continouly searched for enemies to be the host of a spray of lead from the machine guns nested close by. Yet, nothing came. Oliver, still lying on his stomach, the dry, ground, hard on his skin, had decided to keep constantly looking out, looking for anything.

Minutes later and still nothing happened. Oliver was getting anxious waiting for an unknown enemy. He would've have been internally happy at the prospect of it been a gross misunderstanding and it was actually a false alarm, but the chances of that happening were slim.

The covenant were most likely very annoyed at losing the base, as it was one of the few instances that they actually lost ground across the entire planet. The base was a primary target being centered between multiple other bases, and the covenant would be ecstatic to have the base back again.

Those were the reasons Oliver had summed up that the base would most indeed be under assault soon and it wasn't a false alarm, but how soon was the question that was wrenching him apart.

Just when the impossible was seemingly becoming the probable, one the lights scanning paused on a particular area that had plenty of debris, and seconds later machine gun fire erupted, the bullets shreading anything that had been there to pieces.

Dozens of figures exposed themself from cover at once, clearly having taken a long time to get to such a close position to their target without being noticed.

The marines on the ground were having trouble picking out where the enemy was, however their opponents with superior technology spotted them with ease. The lights did their best in lighting up the area to a degree where most targets could be seen.

Why there wasn't night vision gear for them on an operation such as this was beyond Oliver, but he did however managed to catch a glimpse of a few dark blobs before he hid behind cover. He unprofessionally put the rifle over his head while still keeping his head in cover and started spraying at the location where he saw covenant.

He tried to listen over the sound of the battle but heard no signs of any of his shots connecting. Looking behind him he saw many marines had already fallen to the ambush, some dead and some wounded, yet saveable, and some who were unlucky enough to have wounds severe enough that they would most likely be unsaveable, at least in this current situation, yet not bad enough that killed them quickly, so all they could do was wait.

He felt bad for those people, but he had to do his job. His prority was attending to less severly wounded, attempting to put them back on the battlefield or more likely send them away on stretchers.

Machine gun and rifle fire were met with equal retaliation from plasma shots. Oliver was busy helping a soldier who had been hit with a plasma shot in the chest, the armour absorbing a great deal of the shot but still causing bad damage.

He stripped the charred metal plating off the man's chest and assessed the injury. The skin was burned where the shot had connected and partially penetrated the armour. Fortunately, it wasn't very deep and could be dealt with the equipment Oliver had.

The man who had been wounded was not making much noise, instead preferring to grit his teeth and try to soldier through the pain. It was working, as the man wasn't moving very much, making Oliver's job easier. He applied a special type of cream to the man's chest for the burns after cleaning it up with antiseptics, than patched him up with bandages to seal the wound.

Satisfied that the man was taken care of, he got up and surveyed the other injured personnel. He continued working feverishly, rushing from one soldier to another.

The fighting was dying down and eventually stopped altogether surprisingly. It was extremely hard to tell in the dark, but when Oliver looked over his cover, he saw no remaining enemies, nor did anyone else.

This unnerved him, as the covenant so far had never under prepared. They could afford to send large amount of troops to squash their opposition, so why they didn't do that just them led him to the conclusion that more covenant were on their way. Whatever they had just sent must have been a scouting party of some sort.

Some soldiers were cheering and celebrating the small victory, believing they had won. The officers, being more sensible came to the same conclusion quicker than Oliver, and were already informing their men of this revelation.

The men were quickly back in a defensive stance, guns poking out over the various different pieces of cover, heads found at the start of these guns, vigilantly searching for targets.

'This is only the beginning', Oliver thought fearfully, dreading what was to come.

Yet, like last time, the covenant didn't seem in a hurry to attack. An indescribable feeling was growing in Oliver's stomach, as he knew this time the covemant were definitely coming, and they were coming in numbers.

They waited for what seemed like an eternity for anything to happen. At one point an agitated soldier commented, "I wish these bastards would either leaves us alone or just shoot us already!".

Not a minute later did the man to the right of the commenter was sniped, a hole burning straight through where his eye once was, killing him before he had even hit the ground. He was not the only man to have been hit, in fact it seemed like a coordinated effort, as the snipers had all shot within milliseconds of each other.

Over the sounds of plasma raining down hell on their position and the occansional burst of rifle fire in retaliation, an officer was roaring, "Get down! Get down!".

Oliver did just that but some men either were oblvious to the order over the sounds of battle or were disobeying it and continued to fire back. Alongwith the snipers, enemy troops were also pushing their position, which may have been why some troopers continued to fire even though there was a risk of snipers. Oliver ducked back under again after he peaked for a split second, scared of the amount of advancing troops he saw.

The machine guns a top the roof continued to fire through the storm of plasma, doing heavy damage. The assault was impeded and slowed to a crawl by those guns, which Oliver was extremely grateful for.

In a cruel twist of fate, as if the universe existed to spite him, half a dozen banshees swarmed the gunners position, sending bright green explovise plasma shots onto their position. The shots were devastating, managing to knock out multiple nests all in one run. The remaining turrets focused their firepower on the banshees, allowing the other covenant troops to advance.

Two flaming banshees came crashing out of the sky, impacting the ground with force. The gunners were doing an admirable job at taking out the banshees, but when one more banshee went crashing into the ash that covered the ground, that would be the last. The last gun went quiet, signalling the destruction of one of their most powerful defensive weapon.

With nothing to majorly heed their advance, the covenant charged them. Seeing their position being compromised, more soldiers took aim over their cover and started firing. Oliver too plucked up the courage to peak over the top. He started spraying the oncoming opponents in a wild pattern, not focusing on a single target, just trying his best to hit something.

With the lights either destroyed or unoperated, it was even harder to see.

There were just as many rifle bullets being fired now as there were plasma, but their position was still being overwhelmed. At one area further done the line, a breach was made and the covenant flooded it like a leak.

Multiple officers were shouting, "Retreat to the fort!", at their men. Oliver didn't want to stay out in the open any longer, so eagerly followed the order and retreated inside to the safety of the fortress. At least safe from snipers and banshees, they still had a lot of other problems going for them.

Some men went running straight to the building with their backs facing the enemy, while others fired some shots back at the on rushing non-friendlies to cover their retreat. More lifeless bodies had hit the ground before the last man had entered the building. The majority of these were UNSC.

The metal door shut with a bang. Inside, even with the large hallways, it began to feel very claustrophobic real quickly. There was a lot shouting, people panicking and officers barking orders.

It was too overwhelming for Oliver, and panic started taking control. He started hyperventilating, and his mind was clouded. He didn't remember a time anything this bad had happened. Even with his first mission it happened so fast that the adrenalin never gave him a chance to think about what was truly going on. At that moment, he felt weak, weaker than than any other point in his life.

It wasn't his time to go, he was not due, is what he told himself, but it didn't help. They were in an oversized pillbox, waiting in line to be cut down. That was what Oliver really thought.

He thought it Shi'ae was here she'd be able to comfort him. He missed her. He missed Isaac, his family back home, and even just the safety and warmth these people brought him.

'Why am I talking about these people like I'm already dead? Maybe I feel dead. I'm not there yet though. I'll... I'll keep going and I will see them again. All of them.', he thought reassuringly to himself, not too confident but motivated to achieve what he told himself.

Shaking, he scanned the area, having been lost in his mind for a minute, he had forgot his surroundings. He was slumped against a support beam, with other stiff faced soldiers in cover also, guns pointed somewhere roughly behind Oliver.

He took a peak around the beam and saw what they were aiming at. An entrance point, blocked by a heavy metal door. He was doing his best to distract himself by looking at and think of fairly mundane things, anything to distract him. The feeling his stomach that was making him feel sick was always heavy no matter what he was imagining though.

A loud bang, as if someone had hit a block of metal with a sledgehammer, reverberated around the room. He scrambled into a crouch position and took another peak at the door once the pieces had clicked. The once sturdy door was still shaking from whatever had hit it, and would clearly not last long.

At that very same moment the door received another shattering hit. A sergeant, or whoever was leading, Oliver didn't know, shouted out, "Hold your positions men! We can not let these bastards through!"

The door was slammed against again in quicker succession.

"Ready men! This it!", the man shouted moments before the door flew off its hinges with a huge dent in it from being pounded repeatedly.

Oliver leaned around the beam, rifle tucked against him, and shot out multiple bursts from his gun. The stocky figure blocking nearly the entire doorway, holding some kind large bludgeon, was eventually downed after a large amount of fire from all of the soldiers in the room.

The moonlight lit up the doorway and part of the room, revealing the figure was in fact an oversized brute, which was enormous as an average sized brute was huge already.

The moonlight was fragmented when covenant soldiers rushed in. There was roughly forty feet between Oliver and the door, so they didn't have too far to go before they were right on top of them.

Oliver continued to fire his rifle at the oncoming attackers, succsessfully hitting a few, although that was not much of a feat considering how tightly compacted his targets were.

He pulled the trigger once again, but was confused when all he heard was a click. His clip was empty. He looked down at his weapon, and then with twitchy hands, he reached for an additional clip.

After a few seconds of missing the slot where the clip went, he eventually loaded the gun and received a satisfying click. He peaked back around around his cover and saw his foes even closer than previous moments ago. They were scarily close, having made ground incredibly quickly over a short span of time.

He squeezed the trigger and didn't let go until a couple plasma shots were directed at him, forcing him back into cover. He turned to his left side and went to shoot from that side but when he leaned around, he was met with a hairy ape charging him. He tried to avoid the hit and was partially successful, managing to be only grazed by the brute's ferocious attack.

It was still enough to send him flying to the floor, and he impacted the ground hard. The shock of the impacted had him momentarily frozen. The brute opened his jaws wide, bearing it's great pointed canines.

As it went to have another swipe at

Oliver, it was staggered back by a hail of bullets. The brute looked surprised that anyone would dare attack it, and brought up it's weapon, seeking it's next victim. Fortunately, the brute was hit from multiple sources and was killed before it could do any damage.

Still in shock, a hand roughly grabbed him and dragged him to his feet, sending him in the opposite direction of the fight.

Not knowing what to do, he just ran in the direction he was facing to the nearest piece of cover. He propped himself up against an old cart, and took a few moments to reorientate himself after the knock.

His own jaw was aching badly, and his head was swimming. Where he had been hit was tender to the touch, and he could already tell there was a bruise there.

After a few more seconds, he still felt bad, but he could push through it if it meant fighting for his life. It was quiet though, not at all what he expected. Only footsteps could be heard, softly tredding on the hard ground.

Did they manage to push the covies back? That didn't make sense, there were so many, how could they beaten back that quickly.

He quickly stepped out of cover with his rifle raised, but was almost immediately hit by a large elite ultra with white armour and rose gold accents.

He saw the figure towering over him after he had fallen, and soon after began to lose consciousness before blacking out entirely.

 **Sorry I've been gone a bit, wanted to take my time on this chapter and I was honestly probably a bit lazy with it aswell. Thanks for still sticking around though : )**


	17. Chapter 17

**Usually put these notes at the end but I have to say sorry for taking so long and thank you very much to all who are still here. I just hope this chapter is as good quality as the previous ones.**

His head hurt. He could feel the warm rays of sun on his bare skin, yet he felt cold. It was dark, and he was having trouble making sense of anything, from thoughts to what he was feeling.

He regrettably shaked his head to try and clear it, causing only more pain at the sudden jolt of movement. He decided it best to take his time, so he slowly lifted his head up and surveyed the area around him.

He was outside on the ground, leaning up against a high concrete wall, a lively forest in front of him. It reminded him of simply relaxing out in the woods with Shi'ae. He was content then, and thinking about it made him happy.

With his senses becoming clearer, he was able to distinguish two sperate pains on his head. One was a headache, the other was a throbbing bruise on his forehead. He reached up to touch it, but recoiled in surprise and pain at how sensitive and sore it was to the touch.

He tentatively stood up on his two feet, hands against the cool wall behind him to balance himself. He straightened himself up after a few moments, stretched, and began to walk around to get a better grasp of where he was.

His memory was foggy. He could piece together some pieces of information but it was like looking through a fogged up window on a cold morning; he just couldn't see the full picture clearly.

He must've been at a part of a base the was not frequented much, as vines were growing high up the concrete walls and the shrubbery around Oliver was dense. He didn't recognise this side of the base at all, so was unsure where to go from there.

He spun around in a motion quicker than what was good for his health however when he heard movement behind him. Leaves were rustling and the occansional twig would be broken, as whatever was there grew nearer.

He readied himself for almost anything, but was not given much time before a figure stepped out into the clearing. It was tall, white armoured elite.

"You're awake?", it half questioned half stated, all in a glad voice.

The voice belonged to Shi'ae, and he recognized it after a few seconds, feeling slightly dumb for still standing there in a fighting stance.

He smiled, overjoyed to see his friend once again alive and well. She took off her helmet, revealing her light gray face, doing a sangheili smile, which Oliver thought was sweet.

"I'm glad to see you again.", he started.

"As am I to see you. You almost had me worried, you were unconscious for many hours. How are you feeling?"

"I'm quite a bit stiff and sore, but I could be worse, I guess. Was I knocked out?", he questioned.

"I'm really, really sorry about that Oliver, but I'm afraid it was the only way to get you out. I didn't hit you too hard, did I?", Shi'ae asked him, almost looking ashamed of hitting him, although Oliver was still finding it difficult to read more complex sangheili emotions.

"Shi'ae, you saved my life for like, the third or fourth time, don't be sorry. What's troubling me is how I can ever repay you..."

She cheerfully told him, "There is no need to repay me for anything. I did what I did because we are friends, and I know you would do the same for me."

He nodded sheepishly in comfirmation, realising how much trust Shi'ae had in him. It was somewhat overwhelming, but it did feel good knowing Shi'ae believed in him.

Her tone took a sharp turn, when she sadly informed him that many of his fellow soldiers had been killed. He knew the soldiers at his entrance were all but gone, yet it worried him knowing that many other soldiers in other areas had also been taken by the reaper. His thoughts turned to his friend Isaac, hoping he had somehow made it out alive.

He sighed, took himself out of thought and asked Shi'ae another question.

"Well, where do we go from here?".

"I'm afraid I'm not entirely sure Oliver. The UNSC have retreated far back south, at least a day or two hike away. That would probably be the best course of action, to get you back. I can bring you there if you would like."

"Yeah, it probably would be. I appreciate the offer of you tagging along for company, but where would you go once I'm there?"

"I did something similar when I was recovering in the forest, I should be easily able to do it again", she reassured him.

He wasn't completely satisfied as he figured there were only so many times she could temporarily disappear before she would be questioned even with her high rank.

He did however believe Shi'ae was competent enough to avoid trouble, so decided it would be alright to have some company, but there was still slight worry in the back of his mind.

Why was he worrying so much over her? He did care for her general well -being, but he was fearing the worst and something not that probable. He usually wouldn't worry about much, so he didn't know why this was different. The situation they were in was diffrent though, he guessed.

After realising he had been standing there for a few seconds without saying anything, he smiled and said, "Ok, let's go then".

They started their long journey cheerfully, talking and exchanging stories like old friends seeing each other for the first time in years, even if they weren't.

Oliver didn't know exactly how far away they were, but it appeared to be early morning so they had plenty of daylight to burn. He was telling Shi'ae a story of the first time he went into an ice-cream parlour when he was younger, of course after explaining what ice-cream was.

"At the time I was quite young, so I got excited easily, and with all the new sweet things in front of me, I was giddy. I was running all over the place wanting to try everything, at which at the time could have only been a nightmare for my parents. Looking back at it thought, it was quite funny.", Oliver finished.

"Certainly sounded like quite the handful, although definitely entertaining. I will definety have to try 'ice cream' one day", was Shi'ae's cheerful response.

"That would certainly be interesting", Oliver laughed, thinking of the prospect of Shi'ae awkwardly trying to eat ice cream from a cone.

"It's easy for you to laugh, but I genuinely want to learn about human culture. It intrigues me", said Shi'ae, lighearted in tone but truth in her response.

"You should've been a scientist or something. Not sayin' you're a bad soldier, far from it, but you have a big interest for those sort of things."

She paused for a second in thought, Oliver almost bumping into her at the abrupt stop, but turned to face her to see what she had to say.

"Hmmm... I have considered the idea, but only in recent times. I was lucky to be given an option at a profession at all, so having limited choice did not bother me at the time."

"I guess so, but it would be nice to work at something you like doing. My dad used to always say that if you have a job you like, you'll never work a day in your life. He said a lot of things like that actually", Oliver told her, reminiscing on the things his father said to him regularly before he left home.

His father wasn't a genius, but he was a hard-working man with experience in a lot of things, so he took his words to heart a lot of the time. Thinking of his family only made him miss them, so he tried to forget the subject to spare him the pain.

Shi'ae unintentionally annoyed him when she questioned him about what his family was like. He reminded himself that she was only being curious and it wasn't her fault, and answered her question.

"Yeah, they're good people. Had a fairly large family cause my grandparents lived with us, but growing up I had a lot of support. If you don't mind, how was yours?".

"I had a large family aswell by human standards, with lots of brothers and sisters. I have lots of fond memories growing up with them, from sparring to evening meals. I do miss them now thinking about it," she said remembering times from years ago with a smile on her face.

Oliver, despite his worries and stress, did find her odd smile contagious, and was smiling along with her soon.

She looked at him smiling curiously. She asked him why he was smiling. He told her, "I think it's cause you have nice smile that seems to be spreading to me."

"Thank you, Oliver", she responded, proud of her own smile.

Oliver couldn't help but laugh when she starting showing off a big goofy grin, which to her was just showing pride.

Time was passing slowly on the long trek. If Oliver were to have a guess, he would say it had been nearly four or five hours since they started the journey. He was starting to have doubts if they would make it, as the UNSC had vehicles, and they didn't. He couldn't know how far they had gone, or if they were still going.

The sun was starting to dip into the horizon, but with all the gear Oliver was wearing, he was still sweating and beginning to tire. Shi'ae showed much less signs of wear, and was happily walking up hill, occasionally stopping momentarily to look at something that caught her eye, such as a type of flower or insect.

Shi'ae eventually noticed his slowing pace. She commented, "We can stop to rest of you like."

Oliver initially insisted he could carry on, and was persistent until he couldn't fool himself anymore, and admitted he needed a break. He didn't want to been seen as weak, even though he knew Shi'ae wouldn't care, he would not let himself be weak, but his legs could no longer carry him.

Shi'ae paused when she could no longer hear footsteps trudging along behind her. Turning around she saw Oliver knelt over, catching a break.

"I see a stream just up ahead that we can rest beside, potentially even get some fish.", Shi'ae suggested.

"Yeah...alright.", was Oliver's weary response.

They trudged along in relative silence save for the natural sounds of the planet. They had not seen any trace of UNSC forces, and Oliver was beginning to get worried that they were too far away or they were going the complete wrong direction and Shi'ae was leading him astray.

He trusted Shi'ae though, so he was sure they would see signs of something UNSC that was recent. For now though, he just wanted to sit down and rest his aching legs.

They reached the clear stream, Shi'ae assisting Oliver to sit down, propped up against a tree. After a few seconds he had closed his eyes, a few more and Shi'ae was confident he was asleep.

She thought he looked peaceful sleeping, and so was quiet when moving in an effort not to wake him. She felt sorry for him as he had gone through what she believed was a lot in the last couple of days physically and emotionally for him.

She could take physical pain, but emotions on the level of humans were something new to her. Expressing emotions, especially negative ones other than anger wasn't ever something sangheili did as often. Speaking with Oliver had allowed her to understand them more, and how they can effect a person so much.

She sympathized with him as she knew he was going through bad times. She would try to make him feel better, but she felt she wouldn't be able to like another human, as she didn't know what words to say and things to do, so she found it quite confusing.

To make things worst, she had no clue how he would react emotionally over the next few days, the thought worrying her.

Looking back over to him, seeing him weak and tired, she decided to focus on the moment and try and catch some fish to give them both some much needed strength.

She was successful in catching some fish even thought it was quite shallow water, having caught a total of three moderate sized fish.

She didn't mind eating it raw all that much, but humans seemed to always cook their food from her experience, so she might as well cook all three.

Throwing something together in under ten minutes with some twigs, rocks and bark, she realised she didn't have anything to light the fire with. Looking over at Oliver, more specifically his equipment, she concluded he'd likely had a lighter on his person as that seemed like gear the UNSC would carry.

Creeping over to his sleeping figure not wanting to disturb him from his sleep that he desperately needed. He seemed to be only carrying a medical bag without any other supplies such as food contained within it, so she knelt down in front of him to check his pockets.

She reached her hand into one of his shirt pockets, on the left side of his chest. She had to delicately open the button sealing it and keeping any contents securely in place. After some fiddling around, she managed to open it, and some further investigation she found no lighter in the pocket, so she would have to continue her search.

Going over each side checking his trouser pockets to find them empty, she noticed something strapped onto his left shoulder. Leaning across his body to check what it was.

Oliver started to stir at the same time. He opened his eyes to see Shi'ae in an awkward position very close to him, reaching for something on his shoulder pad. He might have been suspicious of anyone snooping around his stuff while he slept but he had nothing noteworthy in his possesion so he wasn't too bothered.

After a second he calmy said, "Sup", which startled Shi'ae a bit.

"Uhh.. Hi. Sorry to disturb you, I was just looking for a lighter. You wouldn't happen to have would you?"

At this point their faces were just inches apart. Oliver found it _different_ but not in a bad way. He could see the details in her face extremely clearly. The way her mandibles moved when she talked, the slight imperfections in her tough skin, and her eyes which differed in shape and colour to his own. It was all so alien which was probably why he found it fascinating. He thought that there really wasn't anything like this.

Realising he might have been staring, he looked down at his pockets to get the lighter. He took it out of the pack on his waist and handed it to Shi'ae whilst saying, "There you go."

After a momentary pause, she accepted the lighter with a polite, "Thank you".

Oliver simply nodded in response as Shi'ae skipped over to a pile of firewood, with three fish on the dry grassy land next to it, already gutted. She seemed to have initial trouble igniting it and then keeping the fire going, and Oliver was about to offer assitance till she eventually was able to keep a flame alive.

Shi'ae sat down in front of the fire, embracing the warmth, holding the fish over the flames with sticks pierced through their bodies. Oliver sat down beside her and offered to hold one of the fish and cook it himself.

They sat without exchanging words, either too tired to hold extensive intelligent conversation, or simply content with sitting in front of the fire, appreciating the current moment.

They did eventually get around to eating, Shi'ae not being to picky, eating near all of it apart from the head, while Oliver scraped off undesirable pieces with his knife. Oliver was quite hungry, and found the fish extremely tasty, even with nothing on it. He appreciated the new found fresh breath of energy he received, and was completely stuffed after nearly eating most of it.

He sat there, hand on his stomach leaning on a tree, gazing out into the darkening woods. Shi'ae was to his left, finishing up the majority of a second fish.

The big meal was having its effect on him, and he found himself unitentionally closing his eyes, and he eventually dozed off.

 **Just want to give a special small mention to treysonsutton for helping me out** **giving me ideas and inspiration. Of course always a huge thank you for the usuals who know who you are.**


	18. Chapter 18

He opened his eyes groggily, taking a big breath of fresh forest air. Looking around, he was still leaning against the tree, although he had slid further down it, and it was also early morning judging by the light.

Morning dew dampened his hands as he got up. His body was a bit stiff from not sleeping on a soft surface, but he had had a good night's rest and was well refreshed, if not a little hungry.

The fire that had cooked his meal was gone, with just ash and a small trail of smoke left. He could not see any sign of Shi'ae in the imidate vicinity, but he just assumed she had gone looking for food.

That assumption was proven false when he heard Shi'ae behind him. She sounded like she was talking but he was a bit too far away to hear what was being saying. Now he was curious.

Doing his best to try not alert her to his presence, he peeked around the tree. She had her back to him, and appeared to be speaking into a coms device on her wrist.

He tip-toed closer to her, doing his best to avoid stepping on twigs and dry leaves. He was far from complete stealth but Shi'ae seemed distracted enough talking to not notice.

He was quite close now, close enough to hear another voice coming from the device, he wasn't able to make out what it was saying however. He panicked when Shi'ae had put her wrist away from her face, finished with her discussion with whoever was on the other end.

She slowly turned around, and was about to make her way back to where she believed Oliver was sleeping, when she saw Oliver was right in front of her. She completely froze, not knowing what to do.

He didn't want to come off as aggressive, but his voice was a bit accusational when he inquired, "What where you doing?".

Shi'ae stared at him for a few seconds, processing what was happening. Not prepared to answer any questions, it took her another few seconds to respond, "I-I was just talking to a friend".

Oliver decided to continue to press, as he felt like he should know what was going on. Shi'ae also appeared to be somewhat nervous. She might have been just a bit surprised, but if something was going on he needed to know.

"About what?"

Now a bit more alert, she straightened herself and flexed her mandibles. After a momentary pause, she answered, "I... I have a friend that I keep in contact with, I was asking about where the UNSC are located currently, to make sure we are still on course".

"Does this friend, uhm, know that.. I'm.."

"Yes, they're are aware of what I'm doing. There are a few who also share similar beliefs to me, although that number is extremely small, as far as I know".

At this stage she appeared less surprised and nervous, and more like her usual calm self. She was slightly figdety however. Oliver nodded his head and murmured out a "hmmhmm", as a response.

He was fairly satisfied with her reasoning and did trust her enough to believe she was telling the truth, although the way she was acting was odd and unusual. He still had some other questions though.

"Oh.. alright. Anything change about where we're going?".

"I've been told that they haven't moved in the last twelve hours, though scouts have reported that they look ready to move again soon, possibly even leave the planet. We will have to hurry if you are to be reunited with your comrades."

Oliver nodded his head in agreement, and motioned for them to start walking. He still had one more thing to say to Shi'ae however.

"Shi'ae?"

"Yes, Oliver?"

"Can you, uh, tell me about these things in the future?"

"Yes, I will. I understand that I trust you, and you should be able to trust me, without me hiding anything."

Oliver smiled, happy everything had been cleared up.

"Thanks for that, Shi'ae. And I do trust you. Just wanting to make sure everything is clear between us, if we're working together, buddy."

Oliver walked along content, keeping pace with Shi'ae. Shi'ae however, felt like there was a pit in her stomach. She didn't like it.

For Oliver, the walk seemed easy. Knowing he wasn't too far away gave him the extra motivation to happily trek along. The walk was purposeful, and he didn't find his energy waining at all.

It also helped that it seemed to be a perfect day out, with only thin wispy clouds in the sky, dotted around rarely. They seemed to be quite deep into nature, with buildings only appearing every so often, and the animals were in plenty.

He would be relieved to get back, as it had been quite stressful not knowing what was going to happen up until now. He still had his concerns for Shi'ae however, even after she had reassured him that she would be perfectly fine. He guessed he just couldn't help it for some unknown reason to him.

Shi'ae had been fairly quiet so far, not really saying more than a couple of words at a time. He decided to try and strike up a conversation.

"How're you doing? You've been a little quieter than normal".

Keeping her pace, she casually responded, "I never have been a loud one".

He nodded thoughtfully at the response, was almost going to let it be, but he had a feeling something was off.

"Yeah, I know that. I just have this feeling something has been troubling you, although I could wrong."

She kept walking for a few more paces, not looking at him, keeping her gaze straight in front of her. She decided to open up somewhat to him, admitting,"The last few days have not been easy, but nowadays very few things are easy. Don't worry yourself over me though, I'll be fine", she finished dismissively.

"Yeah.. That's fine. If you ever need someone just to even listen to you or whatever, I'll be there. It's good to let things out every now and again.", Oliver said to her considerably.

She mulled over what he had told her and spoke again after she had digested the information.

"Thanks, Oliver. That truly is pleasant and somewhat even relieving to know that. But really, I'm alright for now."

"Alright, I understand that."

"How have 'you' been doing recently?", she inquired, feeling it would only be fair to extend the same courtesy he extended to her.

"To be honest, feeling similar to how you put it. Though, traveling with you in nothing but forest as far as you can see, is actually kinda relaxing. If you're able to forget things for a little bit, yeah, it's quite nice."

"I agree. I wish I could do something similar to this another time, without any time constraints or worries."

Oliver thought of them walking in a park or wooded area, with the only reason being was because they wanted to be there and enjoyed each other's company. The thought was weird to him. It was a such a human thing to do. In fact, doing anything with Shi'ae outside of war and survival, he thought felt odd for some reason.

Maybe it was because he had only known her in a war, maybe it was, well, because she was alien and out of place in these situations. He felt a little bad for thinking she could not do any of these things because of who she was, but maybe he found it odd because some of the scenarios were quite personal.

That actually made more sense to him as he was fairly used to Shi'ae being very alien to him. He still saw the differences between them, but he found them more intriguing than disgusting or anything like that.

Why were these things quite personal? Being with someone just to be with them meant that you would probably be quite close to them, and he had never really thought of being super close with Shi'ae.

He... didn't really mind the idea though. If he had the opportunity, spending time with Shi'ae sounded nice. Although, after this journey, he most likely wouldn't see Shi'ae again. That thought saddened him more than expected, making him shudder slightly.

He eventually responded with a slightly uncertain, "Yeah, that would be something to do."

Shi'ae seemed to be very satisfied with that response, and happily trudged along, content. Oliver had to quicken his pace a little to keep up with her, but he found it no problem. They continued on their trek, however much more they had to go, Oliver was uncertain on this uncertain journey.

"We're nearly there."

She seemed a little bit nervous, although he could kind of understand. She was usually a bit more collected though.

"Shi'ae, since you probably won't be able to come much further since we're close, can I talk to you now?".

"Uhm.. Well, yes of course. What is it you want to speak about?"

"Shi'ae, realistically we may never see each other again after I leave. It's a miracle as it is that we keep bumping into each other, but from here it's seems unlikely that will keep happening."

Shi'ae gave a curt nod, encouraging him to go on, wondering what he was getting at.

"Well.. I just want to say a proper goodbye while we still have a little bit of time, and to thank you as well for being such an awesome friend".

Shi'ae couldn't contain her emotions and warmly smiled at him, joyous that someone would give her such high praise.

"Thank you, that is a lovely thing to say and I could easily say the same about you. However, we are not there yet, so let's not delay."

Oliver gave her a nod and a grin, continuing walking. If he had to leave her, he would leave on great terms.

They still continued talking as they moved, although grew quiet. At this point they were going up a hill, but couldn't see far due to dense bushes and trees around them. That was until Oliver saw the top of the hill, which was clear and should give him a scenic view of the surrounding area.

Shi'ae then spoke up, "I believe this is our destination."

Oliver grew relieved, but needed to see for himself to make sure they were still there. He ran to the top, and stood proudly upright, to see... covenant.

Shi'ae called out to him, pleading, "Oliver, wait! Please, stop!"

What he was searching for the last few days appeared to be a covenant landing zone, with multiple phantoms around the place, stationary at the moment. He quickly scrambled out of sight, kicking up dust as he slid down. There was decent distance between him and the phantoms, but he didn't want to be seen at all.

As there was no sign of any UNSC, anywhere, they must have taken over the outpost, or the UNSC had already left.

"Oliver?"

"Covenant must have taken over whatever UNSC was there, or they might've left already. All I see is phantoms. Oh, Shi'ae, I-I don't know.."

"Oliver, it's okay, calm down."

"No, it's not okay. How am I gonna make it home?"

"Oliver, please, just sit down for a minute."

Shi'ae was unusually insistent that he do something. His mind was racing, but he figured he should listen to her, as she seemed more calm and collected. He took a knee, and ran his fingers through his hair, and let them rest a top his head, while staring at the ground.

Shi'ae brought herself down to his level, even though he wasn't looking at her. She was hesitant, but after a few seconds spoke.

"Oliver, you are my friend, and I trust you. I need you to trust me for a moment and listen to what I have to say."

He hadn't a clue at what she was getting at, but nodded to go ahead, as he needed her at this moment and did have enough trust in her.

"I... I am not experienced in how to do this. I will explain to the best of my abilities however."

Oliver tilted his head up to face her, extremely intrigued now. After a pause of him not saying anything, she continued.

"I will put this bluntly Oliver, my friend; I knew there would be covenant."

"What?", he spat out.

"Oliver, I have a plan, just-"

"No-no, what? Since when did you know?"

"I was aware since we started moving. There hasn't been any humans in this area for weeks."

Oliver grew angry quickly, he was tricked, but why? Why was he tricked? He was confused, but showed his anger over the confusion.

He went to get up, and maybe just leave, he didn't know. However a hand was place on his shoulder, not roughly but firmly, keeping him place for a moment.

"Please, you agreed to listen to what I have to say. I did not do this out of malice, but... because I care.", she responded quietly as she gently trailed her arm down the side of his, until it did not hold him anymore.

Her calmness had an effect on him, but he was still overwhelmed with emotions. He didn't trust himself with words, so he just gave another nearly unnoticeable nod.

"Thank you. I have not lead you into a trap or have betrayed you in any sorts or anything ridiculous such as. I was.. uncertain you would be safe, so I needed to make sure you would be. I came up with a plan in the spur of the moment that I believed, and still do, will work."

"What's the plan?", he managed to get out.

"I need to get you off the planet to keep you safe, and I think I know how. There is a ship, a cargo freighter, leaving for Earth in a day. I plan to get you on that ship. I'm sure you have many questions, but I will take care of everything, I promise you."

He was breathing heavily, but was glad to have a tiny bit more clarity on what was going on. Shi'ae had faith in her plan, but he wasn't as sure of it working. A sinking feeling had set in, as he realised what they were doing and where he was going. A small part of him rejoiced in going back to the Sol system, another part felt sick knowing the covenant had found Earth, a larger part feared hiding in an enemy ship for God knows how long.

He decided to be honest with Shi'ae as she had provided him with the same courtesy.

"Shi'ae, I feel scared... I'm unsure and my mind is fuzzy. I d-don't know what to do."

Shi'ae tried to look at him in the face, but he was still looking away from her. She put her arm around him, and tried to get within view of his eyes. He leant towards the touch and look up clearly at her.

They held eye contact for a few seconds her eyes gazing into his bloodshot ones. Oliver then rested his head on her chest plate, and she embraced the contact.

She had never experienced anything like this before, although it made her feel warm, she didn't know exactly why. She just wanted to stay like this for a while, and not have to move or think about anything else. After about a minute, she felt it appropriate to say something.

"You do not have to go with me of course, but I will keep you safe if you do. There is no need to worry, my friend."

He was reassured by this, and just closed his eyes for a moment to not think about anything, and Shi'ae was in no rush to move him either. She was content staying in silence, but he had a question.

"Shi'ae?"

"Yes, friend?"

"Why do you go so far to keep me safe?"

He seemed much more relaxed, but now looked up at her expectantly. She had to carefully formulate a response, but respond she did.

"Oliver, you mean a lot to me. I... Friends are a hard thing to come by for me, so I would naturally want to keep someone who is as nice to me as you are safe."

He pulled away from Shi'ae, but was still on his knee, close to her. He coughed lightly, almost just to clear his throat. The corners of his mouth curled into a small smile.

"Thank you, Shi'ae. You're a great friend."

"As are you, but thank you for what?"

"For everything. I'd be perfectly fine going with you, cause I know you'll keep me safe."

He was still a little quiet in his words, but he meant what he said. He was going to go with her because he wanted to.

She nodded and smiled. She slowly rose to her feet, and moved a bit further up the hill. She stopped when she saw what she was checking for, and turned to Oliver.

"We shall be taking a phantom to the vessel. It will be piloted by my 'friend' I was speaking to earlier. I am sure you will get along well together. I will lead you to the phantom; this area is very lightly guarded, so we should not have any difficulties."

He was also standing at this point, and also joined her near the top of the incline, after a few moments.

He simply asked, "Which one is our bird?"

She was not all that familiar with that piece of jargon, but she had a feeling she knew what he meant.

"Do you mean our phantom?"

He nodded, and she pointed a long slender arm to the phantom at the back of the left row.

"Let's do this.."

They went down the other side of the hill to get closer to where they needed to be. The long lines of large covenant ships looked daunting to Oliver as they drew near, but he couldn't see any other living beings in sight, which baffled him. Shi'ae mentioned there wouldn't be many soldiers at this base, but seeing none at all, put him on edge.

He tapped Shi'ae on the shoulder to grab her attention and whispered his query to her.

"Why is it so empty?"

Shi'ae also seemed to be on high alert, and kept her guard as she spoke with a hushed tone.

"This area is very inactive compared to other locations, but I agree, it is very sparse of people."

As they reached the edge of the cover of the forest, Shi'ae paused, and motioned for him to follow her closely. She scanned the surrounding area, and once she concluded it was clear, moved quickly towards the phantom, surprisingly light on her feet.

Oliver was right behind her, as they took cover behind one of the many phantoms. He peered around the edge of the craft, and saw nothing in the middle of base.

Shi'ae was aware of this as well, and quickly skipped across to the next phantom. Two phantoms later, Shi'ae came to a sudden stop, Oliver stopping with her.

Curiosity of not knowing what caused the halt got the better of him, and he squeezed around Shi'ae to get a look.

He instinctively retracted his head because of what he saw. A brute was sleeping soundlessly, propped up against the purple hull of a phantom.

It was only a few yards away from them, and while it appeared to be sleeping heavily, he wouldn't risk making any noise.

Shi'ae looked at him, her helmet currently obscuring her face, and signed she would move across. She put extra care into not making a sound, and briskly and gracefully moved in strides across. Oliver caught himself staring a little at her graceful movements, but quickly refocused on moving stealthily.

He was not nearly as graceful or fast as Shi'ae, but he was standing behind her, and the brute was still sleeping soundly.

Shi'ae nodded in approval, and they continued moving. There were no further hiccups after that, and they had made it to the last phantom, their phantom, the start of his ridiculous journey home.

The phantom was currently inactive, with the doors he knew could open on the side closed up.

Shi'ae turned to him once more and got close to him, to whisper another message to him.

"Wait here, I will be back soon, I promise you."

He nodded, and Shi'ae moved forward, not needing to maintain stealth as much, without him in tow. He checked his surroundings out of habit, and tried to relax when he saw nothing, but just wasn't able to.

He was still attentive and even a bit twitchy waiting for Shi'ae to come back, and after two or three minutes that felt much longer, he was startled when the phantom he was leaning against suddenly powered on.

It wasn't very loud, but there was a humming noise and a few lights flickering to confirm it was on.

The gravity elevator was off as it wasn't needed when the phantom was grounded, but one of the side doors did opened, just a crack. It was dark inside making it hard to see anything, although he swore he could see the outline of a head.

This was confirmed only a second later when the door flew open, light flooding into the dark interior of the phantom. A figure stood on the slope the door now made, the figure being slightly shorter than he was, and sporting a beak.

He could easily tell it was a jackal, or some variation of the species as he knew there was more than one. He was caught off guard however, unsure how to react as he didn't know if the jackal in front of him was with Shi'ae or not.

His internal question was answered when the jackal stuck out a hand or claw, he wasn't sure which, and did it's best to give a warm smile he assumed, although the beak didn't make it easy for the creature.

It tilted its head puzzlingly, and opened its mouth to speak.

"Hello? Oliver, is it?"

He nodded his head hesitantly as she still held out a hand, or claw, as to offer him a hand up onto the phantom.

"Well, come on, I won't bite, I swear.", she reassured him, doing her best not to frighten him in anyway as she feared she might.

The inside of the phantom was quite barren, and was obviously only meant to transport troops from point A to point B. The only seats were in the cock pit, being the pilot and another seat for an optional copilot.

Oliver was still standing, waiting for the craft to take off into the sunset. He was a bit agitated to say the least.

At the moment he was the only one in the phantom, as the jackal had gone to get something, and Shi'ae had followed.

He wasn't sure what to think of the jackal. She seemed like a chirpy enough person, and she was Shi'ae's friend who she trusted, so she was on his good side because of that. Although, he knew very little about her, he didn't even know her name.

His thinking was interupted by the arrival of Shi'ae and the jackal.

"Hello, again", the jackal said as she moved past him towards the cockpit of the craft.

He gave a nod and a mumbled 'hi' in response.

Shi'ae stayed in the troop bay with him.

"What do you think of her?"

The question caught him off guard, the words cutting through the silence. He had only met her, so he didn't think much really. He didn't think negatively of her however, and she seemed fairly chirpy.

"Seems alright, but it's not as if I've actually talked to her much.", was his honest response.

"Well, yes, it really has been only a few minutes. I just want to make sure you two get a long. It would make things easier, and as I am sure we both know, having a friend is always nice."

He cracked a smile at that statement as he know how true it was, especially over the last few days.

"I can't argue with there. Actually, what's her name even?", he said while pointed a thumb behind him in the direction of the cockpit.

"Char. Char is her name."

The phantom suddenly jerked into motion as Shi'ae spoke. It threw Oliver off a little, but the craft was surprisingly smooth in motion.

"Sorry!", a voice called back to them.

"Probably should've told yous, but we're airborne now!", the same voice said.

"Let's find a place to sit, as we may be here a while.", Shi'ae said.

He nodded in response, but his mind was elsewhere, thinking about what he had just decided and where it would take him.

 **Sorry for the wait again guys, thanks for being so patient with me. Also, another thanks for the great support on the last chapter, I loved reading all of your reviews. Let me know what you honestly thought of this chapter, as feedback would be great especially for this chapter.**

 **Also, Happy New Years!**


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